Class_J^ I 

Book , 3 i. 

Copyright! 1 

COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



SHORT HISTORY 



OF 



METHODISM. 



BY JOHN W^BOSWELL, D.D., 

Assistant Ewtoe ov thb " Chuistiaji Advocate," Nashvtll*. 



Nashville, Tenn.; Dallas, Tex.: 
Publishing House of the M. E. Chuech, South. 
Babbee & Smith, Agents. 



THE LIBRARY OF 

CONGRESS. 
Two Cores Received 

JUL. 27 1901 

Copyright entry 
CLASS No 

2L 5~Xc X 

COPY B. 



Copyrighted, 1900, 

BY 

Barbee & Smith, Agents. 



PREFACE. 



The principal facts and features of Metho- 
dism are briefly detailed in this little volume. 
In its preparation the author has availed him- 
self of information furnished by the best his- 
tories of the Church. Indebtedness is hereby 
acknowledged to Stevens's " History of Meth- 
odism/' Stevens's " History of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church," McTyeire's "History of 
Methodism," Tyerman's "Life of Wesley," and 
McClintock and Strong's Cyclopaedia. Quota- 
tions from other sources are duly credited. 

Should this Short History create in the minds 
of readers a desire to learn more of Methodism, 
and inspire in them a greater love for the Church, 
the author will be satisfied. 

Johk W. Bos WELL, 

Nashville, Tenn., October 1, 1900, 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

PAGE 

Origin of Methodism in Europe — John Wes- 
ley 1 

CHAPTER H. 
The First Societies 9 

CHAPTER HI. 
Methodism Planted in America 15 

CHAPTER IV. 

The First Conferences — Preparing for Or- 
ganization 22 

CHAPTER V. 
The Organization of the Church 31 

CHAPTER VI. 

Development of the Church Idea — The Poli- 
ty of Methodism 39 

CHAPTER VII. 

Development of the Church Idea — Disci- 
pline 48 

m 



vi 



Contents. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

PAGE 

Development of the Church Idea — The Creed 

of Methodism 57 

CHAPTER IX. 

Development of the Church Idea— The Min- 
istry 66 

CHAPTER X. 

The Economy of Methodism — The Legislative 

and Executive Departments 75 

The General Conference 76 

CHAPTER XI. 

The Economy of Methodism — The Annual Con- 
ference 85 

CHAPTER XII. 

The Economy of Methodism — The Minor Con- 
ferences , 94 

The Quarterly Conference 94 

The District Conference 97 

The Church Conference 100 

CHAPTER XIII. 

Pastoral Oversight 103 

Bishops and Their Duties 104 

Presiding Elders 108 

Preachers in Charge 112 

Local Preachers, . , 113 



Contents. vii 

CHAPTER XIV. 

Lay Officers of the Church 117 

Stewards 117 

The Class Leader 120 

Extorters 122 

Trustees 124 

Sunday-school Superintendents 125 

CHAPTER XV. 

The Work of Methodism — Missions 127 

CHARTER XVI. 

The Work of Methodism 137 

Education 137 

Sunday Schools 141 

Church Extension 144 

The Epworth League 148 

CHAPTER XVII. 

Divisions of Methodism 153 

The Wesleyan Methodists 154 

The Methodist Episcopal Church 156 

The Methodist Episcopal Church, South 158 



! 



A SHORT HISTORY OF METHODISM. 



CHAPTER I. 

ORIGIN OF METHODISM IN EUROPE — JOHN 
WESLEY. 

Methodism was not the outcome of any dis- 
turbance in the Church. No question of doc- 
trine or polity was in agitation at the time of 
its origin. The excitement produced by Mar- 
tin Luther's protests against the corruptions 
of Rome had subsided. The troubles incident 
to the rupture between the English crown and 
the papacy had long since quieted. The ref- 
ormation was complete, and the Church of 
England was firmly established. There was 
profound peace. The birth of Methodism was 
as quiet as the bursting of a bud into blossom, 
but it was as easily and as quickly discovered 
as a full-blown rose. The germ was planted 
long before there was anything like an organ- 
ization, and ten years before the first Metho- 
dist meetinghouse was built. It began with 
John Wesley, who, in company with his 
brother Charles and about ten other young 

a) 



% A Short History of Methodism. 

men, students at Oxford University, formed 
a club for the purpose of prayer and study 
of the Scriptures. This was in November, 
1729. They were so devout and consistent 
in their daily walk, and so systematic in 
their devotions, that, notwithstanding they 
were the farthest removed from anything like 
ancient pharisaism, they attracted the atten- 
tion of their godless fellow-students, who ridi- 
culed them as " Bible Bigots," " Bible Moths," 
the " Godly Club," etc. One student, not so 
irreverent as others, but more learned, de- 
clared that a "new sect of Methodists had 
sprung up." The title was appropriate: it 
clung to them, they accepted it, and in due 
time it was applied to the Societies, and finally 
to the organization of the Church in America 
and to the Wesleyans in England. 

John Wesley was the inspirer of the move- 
ment, the very life of it, in fact, from its be- 
ginning to the close of his life, March 2, 1791. 
This remarkable man was born at Epworth, 
Lincolnshire, England, June 17, 1703. His 
father was a clergyman, and rector at Epworth 
for the long period of thirty-nine years. His 
mother, Susanna Wesley, a richly endowed 
woman mentally and morally, was the daugh- 
ter of Dr. Samuel Annesley, who was also a 



Origin in Europe — John Wesley. 



clergyman of an honorable family, and was 
himself a man of exalted character. Wesley 
had every advantage necessary to the forma- 
tion and development of a strong and symmet- 
rical personality. His advantages were not 
neglected. He possessed a quick mind and a 
trustful heart. He learned rapidly, and feared 
God. He was far above the average boy in 
all respects. Through the influence of the 
Duke of Buckingham he entered the Charter- 
house School, London, before he was twelve 
years of age; and when only sixteen he was 
elected to Christ Church College, Oxford. 
Here his remarkable proficiency was recog- 
nized, and secured for him a fellowship in 
Lincoln College in 1726. Eight months after 
this, and before he received his degree of Mas- 
ter of Arts, he " was selected as Creek lectur- 
er and moderator of the classes." 

Prior to the organization of the "Holy 
Club," Mr. Wesley was ordained to the minis- 
try in the Church of England, first as a dea- 
con in 1725, and then as a presbyter in 1728. 
But up to the time he was thirty-five years of 
age he was almost an unknown man except in 
the literary circles of Oxford University. In 
these circles he was acknowledged as a man 
of accurate and extensive learning, and an 



4: A Short History of Methodism. 



eloquent and logical preacher. Strong efforts 
were made to induce him to take the care of 
Epworth Church, made vacant by the death of 
his father in 1735. He reluctantly consented, 
but before his application had been trans- 
mitted to the authorities the place was given 
to another. This, it is said, rather pleased 
him, as he preferred to retain his place as Fel- 
low of Lincoln College. Shortly after this 
he was induced to accompany General Ogle- 
thorpe to Georgia as missionary chaplain. 
Here h'e employed his time in preaching to the 
colonists and the Indians. In this work he 
achieved no signal success. After little more 
than two years in Georgia, he returned to En- 
gland. In May, 1738, he attended a Moravian 
meeting in London, and during the service, 
the subject of the discourse being Luther's 
comment on " justification by faith," he "felt 
his heart strangely warmed." From this hour 
he dated his experience in grace, and the 
beginning of his career as an evangelical 
preacher, the like of whom had not been seen 
since the days of St. Paul. 

Wesley was u a bright and shining light" 
— as zealous and effective as he was brilliant 
and evangelical. Thousands were attracted to 
his ministry wherever he went. It is esti- 



Origin in Europe — John Wesley. 5 



mated that after he began " field preaching" 
ten thousand people in some places came to 
hear him, and on one occasion, it is said, as 
many as twenty thousand persons were pres- 
ent. He was tireless in his work — riding, and 
preaching generally from two to four times 
a day. In supervising the work that so rap- 
idly and wonderfully developed, he was com- 
pelled to travel about four thousand five hun- 
dred miles a year. He went ahvays on horse- 
back until he began to grow old, when he was 
forced to take a carriage. During the more 
than fifty years of his Methodist ministry 
he traveled two hundred and fifty thousand 
miles and preached forty-two thousand times. 
Besides all this, he carried on a heavy publish- 
ing business, and " edited, wrote, translated, 
or abridged " not less than two hundred books 
and pamphlets, on theological, philosophical, 
biographical, medical, and other subjects; all 
for the good of humanity. His books were 
sold through the preachers for the special 
benefit of the Societies. One historian says: 
u He was always at work when awake, yet 

/w^as never in a hurry. His industry and un- 
remitted activity never were, never can be, 
excelled." He was abstemious in the matter 
of diet. He determined by actual experiment, 



6 



A Short History of Methodism. 



repeated until satisfied, how much sleep he 
needed, and allowed himself that much — no 
more, no less. He trained himself to go to 
sleep in a moment, and to awake at the right 
time. He arose at four o'clock every morn- 
ing. In business his rule was: " Make all you 
can, save all you can, and give all you can.'' 1 
He lived up to the rule conscientiously. He 
made many thousands of pounds. He wasted 
nothing, but died poor because he had devoted 
his savings to the cause of God. 

In personal appearance Wesley was de- 
scribed, Yv r hen in the prime of life, as 44 neither 
tall nor fat." Tyerman says he 4 4 was rather 
below the middle size, but beautifully propor- 
tioned, without an atom of superfluous flesh; 
yet muscular and strong, with a forehead clear 
and smooth, a bright, penetrating eye, and a 
lovely face, which retained the freshness of its 
complexion to the latest period of his life." 
In his dress there was nothing peculiar: his 
clothes were fashioned after the style of the 
day in which he lived. He was an English 
gentleman of the eighteenth century without 
any of the stiffness of the nobility. In social 
life he was pleasant and agreeable, a fine con- 
versationalist, witty, full of anecdote, courte- 
ous in his manners, and at ease among the rich 
and the poor. 



Origin in JEwrojJe — John Wesley. 



7 



Mr. Wesley did not marry until he was nearly 
forty-eight years of age; and though late in 
life for a matrimonial alliance, he seems to 
have entered into it without due consideration, 
depending more on the judgment of a friend 
than on his own. He was married February 
19, 1751, to Mrs. Vazille, a widow with a small 
fortune, every cent of which was settled on her 
and her children. The marriage was a very un- 
fortunate one. Mr. Wesley did not suffer his 
new relation as husband to hinder him in his 
work. For a time Mrs. Wesley accompanied 
him, but the travel and manner of life — all new 
to her — were by no means according to her 
tastes; and as she had no real sympathy with her 
husband's calling, she soon tired of it and de- 
clined to accompany him to his appointments, 
and finally refused her consent to his oft and 
long-continued absences from home. She be- 
came exceedingly jealous; would travel miles, 
without his knowiedge, to watch him as he 
passed along the roads; would intercept and 
open his letters, with the vain hope of catch- 
ing something on which to base a charge. 
More than once she left him, but Mr. Wesley 
would induce her to return. At last she de- 
parted, vowing that she would return no more. 
Mr. Wesley took the matter philosophically. 



8 A Short History of Methodism. 



Conscious that he was not at fault, he said: U I 
did not forsake her; I did not dismiss her; I 
will not recall her." Notwithstanding his un- 
happy home surroundings, his life work con- 
tinued without interruption and with increas- 
ing success. 



CHAPTER II. 

THE FIRST SOCIETIES. 

As thoroughly consecrated and rnethodistic 
as Wesley was — a man of one book — he was 
in 1738 u utterly without a plan in life." His 
experiment as missionary to Georgia proved 
a failure, and so far as anybody knows he had 
made no further arrangements for the future. 
His one desire was to save souls. This was 
like " fire in his bones," but nothing like an 
organized and systematically planned cam- 
paign with even that object in view had entered 
his mind. Circumstances forced him to adopt 
plans and employ agencies which under other 
conditions would have been rejected. Having 
fully embraced the doctrine of u justification 
by faith only," and happy in the experience, 
he preached it with earnestness. He also in- 
sisted on " instantaneous conversion." His 
preaching was wonderfully effective. The peo- 
ple were aroused, and hundreds turned to the 
Lord. These things greatly offended the cler- 
gy, and they began to oppose him. One by 
one the pulpits of the Established Church 
were closed against him, until finally he had 

(9) 



10 A Short History of Methodism. 



access to none. This naturally limited his 
sphere of operations. He was confined in his 
ministry 64 to the rooms of the Societies, to 
prison chapels, and to hospital wards. 55 

About this time Mr. Whitefield, who was 
preaching with great success, invited him to 
come to Bristol. He accepted the invitation, 
and on his arrival was shocked to find that his 
old friend and club-mate at Oxford was preach- 
ing in the open air. This was contrary to 
Church order — a proceeding which Mr. Wes- 
ley regarded as almost criminal. His passion 
for souls and his good common sense came to 
his relief. He was an eyewitness of the great 
success of Whitefield 5 s preaching, and at once 
acknowledged in it the hand and power of God. 
As his experience in the Moravian meeting 
was the beginning of his real life in Christ, so 
his cooperation with Whitefield at Bristol was 
the beginning of his evangelical career. He 
yielded his lifelong prejudices, and preached 
for the first time in the open air. This was on 
Monday, April 2, 1739. 

As yet there were no Methodist Societies. 
They followed, not of design, nor as the open- 
ing of a prearranged programme. They were 
providential. There is difference of opinion 
as to the date of the first Society. One writer 



The First Societies. 



11 



affirms that it was organized in Bristol, April 
2, 1739. This, it will be noted, was the very 
day on wiiich Mr. Wesley began his open-air 
preaching. The statement lacks confirmation, 
and the presumption is that the author mis- 
took one event for the other. But whether or 
not the first Society was organized on the date 
named, there can be no doubt that Societies 
were organized in Bristol during the year 
1739. Dr. Stevens says: " His [Wesley's] So- 
cieties in Bristol grew so rapidly that he was 
compelled to erect a place of worship for their 
accommodation; . . . on the 12th of May, 1739, 
the corner stone 'was laid with the voice of 
praise and thanksgiving. 5 This was the first 
Methodist chapel in the world." (See Ste- 
vens's History, Vol. I., page 124.) 

Mr. Wesley says the " United Society " had 
its rise in London. The difference in the two 
statements is reconciled on the supposition 
that the Bristol Societies were organized inde- 
pendently of each other, while the Societies in 
London named by Mr. Wesley were organized 
by him as the United Society, and to be ex- 
clusively under his direction. Other Societies 
for religious instruction existed in London, 
but some of them were under the direction of 
the Moravians and others controlled by church- 



12 A /Short History of Methodism. 



men. Mr. Wesley affiliated with the Mora- 
vian Societies, but on account of a disagree- 
ment he withdrew and carried with him about 
twenty of the members. 

The following is Mr. Wesley's own account 
of the rise of Methodism, and is accepted by 
Methodists generally throughout the world: 
u In the latter end of the year 1739, eight or 
ten persons came to me in London, who ap- 
peared to be deeply convinced of sin, and 
earnestly groaning for redemption. They 
desired (as did two or three more the next 
day) that I would spend some time with them 
in prayer, and advise them how to flee from 
the wrath to come, which they saw continual- 
ly hanging over their heads. That we might 
have more time for this great work, I ap- 
pointed a day when they might all come to- 
gether; which, from thenceforward, they did 
every week, viz., on Thursday in the evening. 
To these, and as many more as desired to join 
with them (for their number increased daily), 
I gave those advices from time to time which 
I judged most needful for them; and we al- 
ways concluded our meetings with prayer suit- 
able to their several necessities. This was the 
rise of the United Society, first in London, 
and then in other places." 



The First Societies. 



13 



The idea of forming Societies for spiritual 
instruction and improvement was not original 
with Mr. Wesley. Societies of similar charac- 
ter existed as far back as the middle of the 
sixteenth century. They were approved by 
some of the bishops of the Established Church, 
but were disapproved by Queen Elizabeth, who 
issued a decree against them May 7, 1577. 
They were finally stomped out "in a violent 
way" by Whitgift, who became archbishop 
of Canterbury in 1583. Like Societies arose 
again in the next century. Woodward, in his 
"Rise and Progress of Religious Societies," 
says: "About 1666 several young men in Lon- 
don, being brought to serious convictions by 
the preaching of their clergy, and applying to 
their ministers for religious counsel, were ad- 
vised by them to meet together once a week, 
and apply themselves to good discourse and 
things wherein they might edify one another." 
These meetings, it is affirmed, gave Mr. Wes- 
ley "the idea of those social meetings in which 
the laity were to sustain an important part, 
though still under the guidance of their pastors, 
and in which the strength of Methodism con- 
sists." 

'Mr. Wesley's Societies, in the course of time 
and as a matter of convenience, were divided 



14 A Short History of Methodism. 

into smaller companies called classes, over each 
of which one was appointed who was styled 
"the leader." This official was charged with 
a temporal as well as a spiritual oversight. 
For further information on this point, see the 
Book of Discipline of any Methodist body. 

It must be borne in mind that the Society 
was in no sense a Church. When the members 
met there was prayer and exhortation for 
mutual benefit, but never anything like formal 
service or the administration of the sacra- 
ments. Mr. Wesley said: "Such a Society is 
no other than a company of men having the 
form and seeking the power of godliness; 
united in order to pray together, to receive 
the word of exhortation, and to watch over 
one another in love, that they may help each 
other to work out their salvation." The 
United Society was the beginning of organic 
Methodism. 



CHAPTER m. 



METHODISM PLANTED IN AMERICA. 

Methodism is essentially missionary in its 
spirit and operations, though it can hardly be 
said that its beginning in America is due to 
any mission agency. Philip Embury, a local 
preacher from Ireland — a carpenter by trade — 
who had settled in New York, held the first 
Methodist service in that city in 1766. This 
was the first of the kind in the New World. 
The service was not altogether voluntary on 
the part of Embury. But for the stirring ap- 
peal of Barbara Heck, a zealous Irish Metho- 
dist, notable in the early history of the Church, 
it is doubtful whether Embury ever would have 
been heard of in connection with the Metho- 
dist movement. Her strong exhortation roused 
the lukewarm preacher, and forced him to 
duty. Pie organized a Society and began to 
preach, first in his own house, then in a hired 
house, and afterwards in the "Rigging Loft" 
known as the birthplace of American Metho- 
dism. Embury continued in this work about 
three years, much of the time having the as- 
sistance of Captain Thomas Webb, of the Brit- 

(15) 



16 A Short History of Methodism. 

ish army, a local preacher of great earnest- 
ness, very popular in the army and among the 
people, Embury surrendered his work to the 
first missionaries sent from England by Mr. 
Wesley. These missionaries, Richard Board- 
man and Joseph Pilmoor, landed in Philadel- 
phia in the autumn of 1769. They began to 
preach immediately, first in the city, and then 
in different country towns as they made their 
way to New York. They were preceded in 
New York full two months by Robert Wil- 
liams, the first itinerant preacher to reach 
America. Williams was not an appointee of 
Mr. Wesley, but a volunteer, who, hearing of 
Embury's success, u spoke to Mr. Wesley, of- 
fering to go, and asking his sanction and au- 
thority." Wesley consented, "with the under- 
standing that he was to ' labor in subordination 
with the missionaries who were about to be 
sent out.' " (McTyeire's History of Metho- 
dism.) Williams proved to be a very useful 
man. He first labored in New York, fre- 
quently making tours into the country. He 
was the apostle of Methodism in Virginia and 
North Carolina. 

Robert Strawbridge, another Irish immi- 
grant, began to preach in Maryland about the 
same time Embury began in New York. He 



Methodism Planted in America. 17 



settled on Sam's Creek in Frederick county, 
where he built what is known in Methodist 
annals as the Log Meetinghouse. It is to 
this day a question which church was first 
erected, the John Street Church in New York, 
or the Log Meetinghouse on Sam's Creek. 

Strawbridge was a man of great zeal, a suc- 
cessful evangelist, and a devoted preacher of 
Methodist doctrine; but he was irregular. As 
a local preacher, he controlled his own move- 
ments* His name occurs in the Minutes of 
1773 and 1775 as an itinerant, and disappears, 
Stevens says, " unaccountably." His irregu- 
larity consisted not so much in the fact that 
he made his own appointments, and persisted 
in serving Sam's Creek and Brush Forest Soci- 
eties, as in administering the sacraments con- 
trary to the advice and wishes of his brethren. 
He was unordained, as all of Mr. Wesley's 
preachers were up to that date. The Metho- 
dists were, in America as in Europe, depend- 
ent on the Church of England for the Lord's 
Sapper and the baptism of their children. This 
was not agreeable to all American Methodists. 
A long and perplexing discussion arose be- 
tween what was denominated the u Sacramen- 
tal party" and those who favored continuing 
their relations with "the Church." Those 

9 



18 A Short History of Methodism, 



who held with the "Sacramental party" un- 
dertook to carry their views into prac- 
tice. Mr. Strawbridge was among- the num- 
ber. He had been instrumental in the con- 
version of many people — he had received them 
into the Society; the church was not always 
accessible, even had it been perfectly agreea- 
ble with all the Methodists to avail themselves 
of the churches altar, and under the circum- 
stances Strawbridge deemed it his duty to act 
toward his converts the part of minister as 
well as preacher. The Conference of 1773 
allowed him to exercise the functions of an 
ordained preacher, provided he would do so 
under the direction of Mr. Rankin, who by 
appointment of Mr. Wesley was superintend- 
ent of the work. This Strawbridge declined 
to do. He died in 1781, remaining useful to 
the end. 

Francis Asbury was the apostle of Ameri- 
can Methodism — called and sent of God. He 
was born of Methodist parents at Hands worth, 
England, August 20, 1745; w T as converted at 
thirteen years of age; began to preach at six- 
teen as a local preacher; at twenty-two joined 
the itinerant ranks; and four years later was 
commissioned by Mr. Wesley as a missionary 
to America, with Richard Wright as his com- 



Methodism Planted in America. 19 

panion. He landed in Philadelphia October 
27, 1771. The next year Mr. Wesley ap- 
pointed him u General Assistant in America." 
This means that he was superintendent of the 
work, and responsible to Mr. Wesley, there 
being nothing like an independent organiza- 
tion in the colonies. 

The Societies in America were not in all 
respects conformed to Mr. Wesley's original 
model, and discipline w as not strictly enforced. 
For these reasons he became dissatisfied, and 
sent over Thomas Rankin, an older and more 
experienced man than Mr. Asbury. He super- 
seded the latter by virtue of his seniority, but 
was really selected by Mr. Wesley to take his 
place as superintendent. It required the com- 
bined strength of both men to bring the colo- 
nial Methodists into perfect harmony with Mr. 
Wesley's plans, owing to the resistance of 
both the preachers and the people. Independ- 
ence was in the air. " Without them it seems 
probable that it [Methodism] would have 
adopted a settled pastorate, and become 
blended with the Anglican Church of the col- 
onies, or, like the fruits of Whiteiield's labors, 
been absorbed in the general Protestantism of 
this country." (Stevens's History of Metho- 
dism.) 



20 A Short History of Methodism. 



As much as American Methodism ewes to 
Rankin, it might have been in debt to him a 
great deal more had he thoroughly understood 
American nature and fully identified himself 
with American life. This he could have done 
without any compromise of principle. But 
he was too rigid in discipline, and rather in- 
judicious. His administration, on the whole, 
was not the best for the embryo Church. The 
American sentiment was to strong for him. 
He determined to return to England. Some 
time during 1777 he made his way to Phila- 
delphia from Maryland. There he spent the 
winter, the British being in possession of the 
city, and on March 17, 1778, he set sail for 
his native land. 

The care of all the churches at last fell upon 
Asbury. Mr. Wesley in due time came to 
recognize his ability and worth, and fully 
trusted him. That trust was never betrayed, 
nor did he ever for a moment falter in his 
work, or decline in his devotion to the cause 
of the Master or of Methodism. He was an 
evangelist of the first order, as energetic and 
systematic as Wesley himself. Soon after 
reaching America he saw what was needed to 
make Methodism more successful. The im- 
perative need was the dispersion of the preach- 



Methodism Planted in America. 21 



ers. They inclined too much to the cities and 
needed to be scattered into the country dis- 
tricts, and this he effected as speedily as pos- 
sible. By so doing he gave offense to some 
who preferred city life. He also saw the vast 
possibilities of the New World, and the oppor- 
tunity presented to an effective itinerant min- 
istry for the propagation of the gospel, and 
predicted that one day the great West would 
be the empire of Methodism. How completely 
have his predictions been verified! 

Asbury, as compared with Pilmoor, in point 
of education was poorly equipped in the begin- 
ning of his ministry; but he was studious, and 
acquired a good stock of information, includ- 
ing a fair knowledge of the Greek and He- 
brew languages. As a preacher he was per- 
haps the equal of any of his English associ- 
ates. But he surpassed them all in adminis- 
trative ability, was a man born to govern, 
and seemed instinctively to know what Israel 
ought to do. He may have been acquainted 
with parliamentary usages, but did not allow 
them to hamper him in his administration. 
He simply governed. Such was the man 
who, under God, was the chief instrument in 
shaping Methodism in America. 



CHAPTER IV. 



THE FIRST CONFERENCES — PREPARING FOR 
ORGANIZATION. 

The first Conference of Methodism held on 
American soil convened in Philadelphia, July 
4, 1773. Thomas Kankin presided. The mem- 
bers "in Society" numbered 1,160. Eleven 
years later, notwithstanding the long war with 
England, the company had swelled to 14,988, 
with several hundred local preachers and ex- 
horters, eighty-four intinerant preachers, be- 
tween sixty and seventy chapels, and a mighty 
host of Methodist friends. The Societies were 
widely scattered, being located in every part 
of the Union except the New England states. 
Nearly nine-tenths of the members lived south 
of Mason and Dixon's line. 

At the close of the war of the Revolution, 
not one of Mr. Wesley's missionaries was left 
in America, save Mr. Asbury. His sympathies 
were with the colonies in their struggle for 
independence. Even had not this been the 
case, he would probably have remained. He 
believed it to be his duty to care for "the 
sheep in the wilderness" which God had so 
* (22) 



The First Conferences. 



23 



graciously committed to his hands. This duty 
was more clearly impressed upon him when 
he saw them deserted by other shepherds — 
for not only did the Methodist missionaries 
return to England, but the clergy of the Es- 
tablished Church also deserted the country. 

In this deplorable spiritual condition, entire- 
ly without the sacraments, the Methodists be- 
gan to clamor. They could not see why their 
own preachers, who had been instrumental in 
bringing them to Christ, should be forbidden 
"to give them the whole gospel." They recog- 
nized the importance of order and ordination, 
but they argued the law of expediency. Many 
preachers sympathized with the clamorous lay- 
men, particularly those in the south. Much 
friction w^as created, and great caution became 
necessary to preserve the unity of the broth- 
erhood. Naturally the matter was discussed 
in the Conference. At the session of 1777, the 
fifth annual meeting, in which it appears the 
question was first discussed, it was decided 
that the preachers should " pursue the old 
plan as from the beginning." And it was 
added, in answer to the question, "What al- 
teration may we make in our original plan? " 
"Our next Conference will, if God permit, 
show us more clearly." The same action, how- 



24 A Short Ills tory of Methodism. 



ever, was taken as at the session the year be- 
fore, but, as one historian says, " with consid- 
erable difficulty," as a large majority favored 
immediate action. 

In 1779 there were two Conferences. The 
first w^as held in Kent county, Delaware, in 
April; the second at Fluvanna, Virginia, in 
May. The first has been called "a preparatory 
Conference," but really it was held for the con- 
venience of Mr. Asbury, who was there in re- 
tirement on account of excitement incident to 
the war. The Fluvanna Conference was the 
legitimate body, as the session had been voted 
to that place at the preceding meeting. The 
question of the ordinances was legitimately be- 
fore the Conference, as action at the previous 
session had not been taken, but postponed to 
this. The preachers were mainly agreed on 
the subject, and resolved to administer the or- 
dinances. They accordingly constituted four 
of their number, Philip Gatch, Thomas Foster, 
Le Roy Cole, and Reuben Ellis, "a Presby- 
tery" to ordain themselves, and then such of 
the preachers present " as were desirous of re- 
ceiving ordination." These instructions were 
followed. 

The action of the Fluvanna Conference came 
near resulting in a serious rupture. A large 



The First Conferences. 



25 



number of preachers thought it premature, 
and because it had not been advised by Mr. 
Wesley they v/ere dissatisfied. The Confer- 
ence adjourned to meet at Manakintovvn, Va., 
May 8, 1780. Asbury, who had been desig- 
nated at the Kent Conference as General 
Assistant, "called a Conference of the more 
northern preachers" to meet in Baltimore two 
weeks in advance of the regular session. The 
object of this meeting was to devise some way 
to check the independent movement of the 
Conference on the " sacramental question." 
Francis Asbury, Freeborn Garrettson, and 
Nicholas Watters were appointed a committee 
(Garrettson called them " delegates" ) to labor 
with the southern brethren u to bring them 
back if possible " to " original usages. " At the 
Manakintown Conference the committee pro- 
posed the suspension of the administration of 
the ordinances for one year, and in the mean- 
lime to communicate with Mr. Yv r esley and 
abide by his judgment. This proposition, after 
much debate and earnest prayer, was unani- 
mously agreed to, and harmony was restored. 
At the Conference of 1781, Garrettson says: 
u Vfe received Mr. ' Wesley's answer, which 
was that w r e should continue on the old plan 
until further direction/' There was not a 



28 A Short History of Methodism. 



dissenting voice, and the preachers " went 
on harmoniously." They were all flaming 
evangelists. Their object was to save souls, 
and if by waiting awhile they could secure 
what they deemed their ministerial rights, 
they could afford to bury their differences and 
go on with their soul saving. With this one 
desire they entered every open door, and the 
Lord " confirmed the word with signs follow- 
ing." 

The Methodists constantly grew in numbers, 
and the necessity for the sacraments daily in- 
creased. Thousands of children were growing 
up never having been baptized, and preachers 
were filling pulpits with great usefulness who 
had never even partaken of the holy commun- 
ion. Thomas Rankin had returned to En- 
gland and confirmed the reports of the won- 
derful success of Methodism. Letters contin- 
ued to go to Mr. Wesley. He was convinced 
that the time to act had arrived. The colonies 
were free and independent, and the English 
Church, deprived of State revenue, had aban- 
doned the field. Mr. Wesley had long since 
been convinced that the doctrine of apostolic 
succession as held by the Anglican Church 
was a fable, and that he had a perfect right to 
ordain to the ministry. His scruples on this 



The First Conferences. 



27 



point oeing at an end, he consulted trusted 
brethren, notably Dr. Thomas Coke and the 
saintly John Fletcher, and was not long in 
making up his mind. 

Dr. Coke, though a churchman, threw him- 
self heartily into the Methodist movement. 
He was already a presbyter, and Mr. Wesley 
ordained him bishop, or superintendent. He 
also ordained Thomas Vasey and Richard 
Whatcoat, first to the office of deacon, and 
the next day to the higher office of elder, or 
presbyter. These men were sent to America 
to organize the Methodists into a separate 
Church, and to ordain Francis Asbury " joint 
superintendent with Coke." The burden was 
now lifted from Mr. Wesley's heart, and the 
Societies in the New World, with a fully em- 
powered ministry, were soon to enter upon an 
era of unprecedented success. 

Coke and his associates sailed from England 
on the 18th of September, 1784, and landed, 
after a stormy and tedious voyage, in New 
York on the 3d of November. The news of 
their coming and their mission had preceded 
them, and their arrival was hailed with de- 
light. They were met and heartily welcomed 
by John Dickins, then stationed in New York, 
and afterwards famous as the first man in 



28 A Short History of Methodism. 

American Methodism to 64 frame a subscrip- 
tion paper to a seminary," and as the origina- 
tor, in Philadelphia in 1789, of Methodism's 
greatest institution, the ' ' Book Concern. " Dr. 
Coke preached in J ohn Street Church on the 
evening of his arrival at New York. He also 
preached the two succeeding days, and on the 
afternoon of the third day, with his colleagues, 
set out for Philadelphia, which he reached on 
Saturday evening. Here a few days w T ere 
spent, and then the company continued south 
to Barratt's Chapel in Delaware, where a Quar- 
terly Conference was to be held on November 
14. Asbury and Coke met at this Conference 
for the first time. Coke instinctively recog- 
nized Asbury. They embraced and entered 
at once into each other's confidence. 

Thomas Coke, the first Methodist bishop, 
was born at Brecon, Wales, in 1747. His 
father was a man of wealth, and designed his 
son for a professional career, and with that 
end in view sent him to Oxford. No date of 
his conversion is given. He chose the Church 
as the field of his operation, and entered upon 
the work of a parish, Stevens says, " an unre- 
generate man, but a conscientious inquirer." 
A conversation with Thomas Maxfield, a 
Methodist lay preacher, gave him clearer 



Tlie First Co7iferences. 



29 



views of truth. But he seems to have been 
fully led into the light by " an untutored but 
intelligent Methodist, 5 ' a common laborer in a 
family in Devonshire. While preaching on 
one occasion, his heart, like Wesley's, was 
" strangely warmed," and he was " filled with 
joy unspeakable and full of glory." His 
preaching became too warm for his parishion- 
ers, though his church was crowded with eager 
hearers. He was soon u chimed" out of his 
church, but he found a home among the Meth- 
odists. 

His entrance into the ranks of Methodism 
was providential. In due time he was large- 
ly to take Mr. Wesley's place, and perform 
services for the Master under the auspices 
of Methodism that no other man in the con- 
nection could perform. He was destined to 
u found the Wesleyan Missions in the West 
Indies, in Africa, in Asia, in England, Wales, 
and Ireland; to represent, in his own person, 
down to his death, the whole missionary oper- 
ations of Methodism, as their official, and al- 
most their sole, director; lavishing upon them 
his affluent fortune, and giving more money to 
religion than any other Methodist, if not any 
other Protestant, of his times." (Stevens.) 
In the prosecution of his work he crossed the 



30 A Short History of Methodism. 

Atlantic eighteen times, and traversed fre- 
quently the United Kingdom, the United 
States, and the West Indies. "When a vet- 
eran of almost seventy years, he presented 
himself before the Wesleyan Conference as a 
missionary for the East Indies. The Confer- 
ence objected on account of the expense, but 
Coke offered to pay the charges of the out- 
lit himself to the amount of thirty thousand 
dollars, and so prevailed over all objections, 
and embarked with a small band of laborers." 
(McClintock and Strong.) This was his last 
missionary journey. He died on the voyage 
in 1814, and was buried in the Indian Ocean. 
But the mission was a success. 



CHAPTER V. 



THE ORGANIZATION OF THE CHUECH. 

Dr. Coke sought an interview with Mr. As- 
bury at the earliest moment. By direction 
of Mr. Wesley they were to be joint superin- 
tendents, and a fair understanding as to the fu- 
ture management of the Church was a matter 
of the greatest moment. A sufficient number 
of preachers to form a council had already 
been called by Mr Asbury. They were then 
at Barratt's Chapel, ready for consultation. 
They were immediately assembled, and after 
debate it was unanimously resolved to call a 
Conference of all the preachers. December 
the 24-th, 1784, was the date appointed, and 
Lovely Lane Chapel, Baltimore, the place of 
meeting. About six weeks intervened between 
the Barratt's Chapel meeting and the time 
fixed for the Conference session. In the mean- 
time Mr. Asbury had mapped out about one 
thousand miles of travel for the new bishop. 
Places for preaching on the route were des- 
ignated. He also provided him with an excel- 
lent horse, and gave him as traveling compan- 
ion and servant "Black Harry." who was Mr. 

(31) 



32 A Short History of Methodism. 



Asbury's " right-hand man," not only serving 
him as hostler and otherwise, but, being a 
preacher, he held forth to the colored people, 
and frequently to the whites, for all delighted 
to hear him. Bishop Coke himself heard him 
with pleasure. 

Bishop Coke's itinerary was one of great 
profit to the churches. The preaching edified 
the people, and they availed themselves of the 
sacraments. In the short space of time allot- 
ted he baptized more subjects, adult and infant, 
than in all the years of his previous ministry. 
The tour was completed a week or more in 
advance of the meeting of the Conference. 
The time was spent by Coke and Asbury at 
Perry Hall, a noted place — the home of a Mr. 
Gough, a devout Methodist, and a man of great 
wealth. This preachers' home — well-nigh a 
paradise — was about fifteen miles from Balti- 
more. Here the leaders matured their plans 
for the coming Conference. 

At the time of fixing the date and place of 
meeting, Freeborn Garrettson was "sent off 
like an arrow from north to south," and to 
dispatch messengers to the east and west, to 
notify all the preachers to assemble in Balti- 
more on Christmas eve. Garrettson faithful- 
ly carried out his part of the preliminary work. 



The Organization of the Church. 33 



He traveled twelve hundred miles in the inter- 
vening six weeks, preaching as he went, and 
returned to find sixty preachers of the eighty- 
four itinerants on hand ready for the opening 
of the session. 

At ten o'clock Friday morning, December 
24, 1784, began the first " General Confer- 
ence" of Methodism in America. It is known 
in history as the " Christmas Conference," 
because its sessions extended through the 
whole of Christmas week. The Conference 
was held in the " Lovely Lane Chapel," a rude 
structure, and not altogether comfortable for 
old people in the cold weather. The good peo- 
ple of Baltimore provided a large stove for 
the occasion, and "furnished backs to some of 
the seats for the comfort of the Conference." 
This chapel was located in what is to-day the 
heart of a great city. Long ago the business 
of the place drove the church to other quarters, 
but the site is marked by an iron tablet let in 
the wall of the Merchants' Club building on 
German street, near South street, Baltimore. 

Bishop Coke presided. On taking the chair 
his first official act was to present Mr. Wesley's 
letter to the brethren in North America; which 
letter, as its reading indicates, was Dr. Coke's 
authority for assuming the presidency of the 
3 



34 A Short History of Methodism. 



Conference. Any history of Methodism would 
be incomplete without this remarkable docu- 
ment. It is here recorded: 

Bristol, September 10, 1784. 
To Dr. Coke, Mr. Asbury, and Our Brethren in North 
America : 

1. By a very uncommon train of providences, many 
of the provinces of North America are totally dis- 
joined from the British empire, and erected into in- 
dependent states. The English government has no 
authority over them, neither civil nor eclesiastical, 
any more than over the states of Holland. A civil au- 
thority is exercised over them, partly by the Congress, 
partly by the state assemblies. But no one either 
exercises or claims any eclesiastical authority at all. 
In this peculiar situation, some thousands of the in- 
habitants of these states desire my advice: and in 
compliance with their desire, I have drawn up a little 
sketch. 

2. Lord King's account of the primitive Church 
convinced me, many years ago, that bishops and 
presbyters are the same order, and consequently have 
the same right to ordain. For many years I have 
been importuned, from time to time, to exercise this 
right, by ordaining part of our traveling preachers. 
But I have still refused, not only for peace sake, but 
because I was as determined as little as possible to 
violate the established order of the national Church, to 
which I belonged. 

3. But the case is widely different between England 
and North America. Here there are bishops who 
have a legal jurisdiction. In America there are none, 



The Organization of the Church. 35 



and but few parish ministers: so that for some hun- 
dred miles together there is none either to baptize or 
to administer the Lord's Supper. Here, therefore, 
my scruples are at an end: and I conceive myself at 
full liberty, as I violate no order and invade no 
man's right, by appointing and sending laborers into 
the harvest. 

4. I have accordingly appointed Dr. Coke and Mr. 
Francis Asbury to be joint superintendents over our 
brethren in North America. As also Richard What- 
coat and Thomas Vasey to act as elders among them, 
by baptizing and administering the Lord's Supper. 

5. If any one will point out a more rational and 
scriptural way of feeding and guiding those poor 
sheep in the wilderness, I will gladly embrace it. At 
present I cannot see any better method than that I 
have taken. 

6. It has been proposed to desire the English bish- 
ops to ordain part of our preachers for America. 
But to this I object: (1) I desired the Bishop of Lon- 
don to ordain one only; but could not prevail. (2) If 
they consented, we know the slowness of their pro- 
ceedings; but the matter admits of no delay. (3) If 
they would ordain them now, they would likewise 
expect to govern them. And how grievously would 
this entangle us! (4) As our American brethren are 
now totally disentangled both from the State and 
from the English hierarchy, we dare not entangle 
them again, either with the one or the other. They 
are now at full liberty simply to follow the Scri}> 
tures and the primitive Church; and we judge it best 
that they should stand fast in that liberty wherewith 
God has so strangely made them free. 

John Wesley. 



36 A Short History of Methodism. 

The Methodists of America now having be- 
fore them the expressed will of Mr. Wesley, 
whom they regarded, under God, as the father 
and founder of Methodism, felt no hesitancy 
in accepting the plans proposed, and proceeded 
to organize themselves into an independent 
body under the title of the " Methodist Epis- 
copal Church. 55 Mr. Asbury, in his laconic 
way of stating matters, says " it was agreed" 
to do this, " and to have superintendents, eld- 
ers, and deacons." Richard Whatcoat gives 
more particulars. He says: " On the 24th we 
rode [from Perry Hall] to Baltimore; at ten 
o'clock we began our Conference, in which 
we agreed to form a Methodist Episcopal 
Church, in which the liturgy (as presented 
by the Rev. J ohn Wesley) should be read, and 
the sacraments be administered by a superin- 
tendent, elders, and deacons, who shall be or- 
dained by a presbytery, using the episcopal 
form, as prescribed in the Rev. Mr. Wesley's 
Prayer Book." The Minutes of the Confer- 
ence say: 4 6 Following the counsel of Mr. J ohn 
Wesley, who recommended the episcopal mode 
of government, we thought it best to become 
an Episcopal Church, making the episcopal 
office elective, and the elected superintendent, 
or bishop, amenable to the body of ministers 
and preachers." 



The Organization of the Church. 37 

Under Mr. Wesley's instructions, Dr. Coke 
could have ordained Mr. Asbury to the super- 
intendency without consulting the Conference, 
or in advance of the Conference for that mat- 
ter; but Mr. Asbury declined to accept the 
high honor save on condition that the Confer- 
ence ratify Mr. Wesley's appointment. This 
the Conference soon decided by vote without 
a dissenting voice. Dr. Coke was also unani- 
mously elected. Up to this time Mr. Asbury 
had never been ordained, and of course had 
never administered any of the sacraments of 
the Church. On the second day of the Con- 
ference he was ordained deacon; the day fol- 
lowing he was set apart as an elder; on the 
fourth day he was consecrated superintendent 
or bishop. The ordinations were performed 
by Dr. Coke, assisted by YY T hatcoat and Va- 
sey. In the ordination for superintendent, 
in addition to the two named, he was assisted 
by Otterbein, a minister of the German Re- 
formed Church, and a personal friend of As- 
bury's. Thirteen preachers were elected elders, 
ten of whom were ordained at the Conference. 
Three, not being present, were ordained after 
the session. Only three preachers were elected 
to the order of deacons. Only one was or- 
dained at the time — the others the following 



38 A Short Ilistorg of Ifeihodism. 

June. Freeborn Garrettson and James O. 
Cromwell were ordained with a view to work 
in Nova Scotia, and Jeremiah Lambert for 
Antigua, in the West Indies. Thus early — at 
the very moment of organization — did Meth- 
odism manifest a purpose to carry the gospel 
into the regions beyond. This was evidence 
of a burning zeal, the more significant con- 
sidering that Methodism had scarcely taken 
root in the soil of the United States. 



CHAPTER VI. 



DEVELOPMENT OF THE CHURCH IDEA — THE 
POLITY OF METHODISM. 

The founder of Methodism never contem- 
plated the organization of a Church. Hence 
its polity was not thought out nor determined 
in advance. In the very best sense it was an 
evolution — the outgrowth of an intensely re- 
ligious life. As it began with Mr. Wesley, it 
was but natural that he should assume leader- 
ship when the Societies increased in number. 
This was freely and fully accorded him. He 
soon found himself at the head of a rapidly 
enlarging host in different cities. This re- 
quired him to travel from place to place. In 
his absence, band or society leaders were neces- 
sary: he appointed them. In the course of 
time other preachers were needed. White- 
field engaged with him in the work, as did 
also his brother Charles, the hymn-writer of 
Methodism, and a few other clergymen of the 
Church. But these did not suffice to meet 
the wants of the people. Lay preachers were 
called into service. They proved to be indis- 
pensable. Thomas Maxfield, the first of this 

(39) 



40 A Short History of Methodism. 

class of helpers, soon developed into a strong 
and popular preacher. After a course of 
years he left Mr. Wesley and became inde- 
pendent. Admitting Maxfield as a preacher 
was a precedent that could not be disregarded. 
4 'Many others," it is said, u of similar piety 
and gifts offered their services and were ac- 
cepted." The precedent was not willingly set 
by Mr. Wesley, but finding himself disap- 
pointed in securing preachers from the pulpits 
of the Established Church to supply the needs 
of the Societies, he became reconciled; and 
finally, when he found men wholly devoted 
to the work of preaching the gospel, though 
not episcopally ordained, he gladly recognized 
them and accepted them as helpers. 

The expansion of the work, and the neces- 
sity of visiting the Societies regularly and 
constantly, and the employment of so many 
preachers, rendered a Conference all-impor- 
tant; and as this necessity, like everything 
in connection with the work, seemed prov- 
identially thrust upon Mr. Wesley, the Con- 
ference was called, and became a fixture in 
the Church. The first one was held in Lon- 
don in 1744. Thus Mr. Wesley found him- 
self to all intents and purposes an itinerant 
general superintendent, an office of far great- 



The Polity of Methodism. 41 



er responsibility than that of evangelist, for in 
addition to his evangelistic labors there rested 
upon him "the care of all the churches." 

Accordingly, when the American Metho- 
dists asked Mr. Wesley to give them the sac- 
raments, he answered them by granting more 
than they required. He not only sent them 
ordained preachers, but deemed it wise to or- 
ganize them into a separate and independent 
Church, and to give them the episcopal form 
of government. His purpose was carried out 
to the letter, and without any friction. The 
polity of Methodism in the United States, as 
determined on by Mr. Wesley, w^as confirmed 
at the Christmas Conference in 1784, and it 
has remained unchanged, except among the mi- 
nor divisions, from that time to the present. 

The polity of Methodism is episcopal — that 
is, the Church is governed by bishops. But 
the episcopacy of Methodism is not patterned 
after the Roman Catholic nor the Church of 
England order of bishops. It is in a mod- 
ified form, as is naturally inferred from the 
fact that Mr. W esley denominated Dr. Coke 
and Mr. Asbury as " superintendents " instead 
of bishops. Methodism has never presumed 
that her bishops are successors of the apos- 
tles and occupy their places by " divine right." 



42 A Short History of Methodism. 

Mr. Wesley regarded the u succession " of the 
English bishops as u a fable." He was con- 
vinced of this many years before ordaining 
Dr. Coke, "by reading Lord King's account 
of the primitive Church." 

In early life Mr. Wesley was intensely 
high-church, believing it well-nigh a sin to 
undertake the conversion of sinners outside 
the walls of a church. Of these notions he 
became " heartily ashamed," and renounced 
all u systems of Church government than that 
of scriptural expediency." But for the rejec- 
tion of his high-church views he never would 
have ordained Dr. Coke bishop for America. 
Notwithstanding that he repudiated high- 
church pretensions, he wrote, in 1756: U I 
still believe the 'episcopal form of Church 
government to be scriptural and apostolical 5 ; 
I mean, well agreeing with the practice and 
writings of the apostles: but that it is pre- 
scribed in Scripture, 1 do not believe. . . . 
Neither Christ nor his apostles prescribed any 
particular form of Church government, and 
the plea of divine right for diocesan epis- 
copacy was never heard of in the primitive 
Church." 

There is here an apparent inconsistency: a 
denial of episcopacy in the primitive Church 



The Polity of Methodism. 43 



and yet an acknowledgment that it is scrip- 
tural and apostolical." But what seems to be 
an inconsistency vanishes w r hen it is under- 
stood clearly in what sense Mr. Wesley held 
to the one and rejected the other. He re- 
jected episcopacy that based its claims upon 
succession and divine right, and that car- 
ried with it not only the idea of superiority 
of office, but an order endowed with priest- 
ly functions. Episcopacy, in the sense of 
general superintendency, he acknowledged; 
and while he did not accept it as ordained by 
Christ, he could not see that it was contrary 
to the New Testament or to the practice of 
the early Church. 

Believing the episcopal form of govern- 
ment best adapted of ail forms to carry on the 
work of the Church, and having purposed the 
establishment of that form of government for 
the Methodists in America, Mr. Wesley de- 
vised a plan by which he could accomplish 
his purpose without investing the episcopa- 
cy with high-church prerogatives, and at the 
same time to make them proper overseers of 
the flock of Christ. The particular character 
of episcopacy that he had in view was not in 
existence, or, if it was, it was quite out of his 
power to avail himself of what advantage it 



44 A Short History of Methodism. 

might be able to bestow. But there was a 
precedent, and he believed that the u exigence 
of necessity" demanded that he should follow 
it. His ideal existed in the Church at Alex- 
andria, which for two hundred years would 
allow no foreign interference in the selection 
and ordination of bishops, but from among 
their own presbyters they Tv r ould select and 
ordain their own bishops. He believed that 
presbyters or elders were fully competent to 
ordain one of their own number to the epis- 
copacy, and when, as he was persuaded, the 
" exigence of necessity 95 was upon him he 
acted on his convictions. Crowther, in his 
u Portrait of Methodism," as quoted by Em- 
ory, in his " Defense of the Fathers," says 
Mr. Wesley told Dr. Coke that he "had 
always admired the Alexandrian mode of 
ordaining bishops; . . . adding, withal, 
that he wished the doctor to go over and 
establish that mode among the American 
Methodists." 

Whether the episcopacy is to be regarded 
as a third order in the ministry, ranking 
both the diaconate and the eldership, or is 
only an office in the Church, is a question 
quite beyond the province of this history to 
settle. The question is immaterial, save as it 



The Polity of Methodism. 45 

bears on the matter of the life-tenure of the 
incumbent, which has never been a disturbing 
factor of great magnitude. It may be safely 
asserted that Mr. Wesley intended the episco- 
pacy as he established it to remain a perma- 
nent branch of Church government, and not 
a temporary expedient to silence the clamors 
of American Methodists. He also intended 
that those who were set apart by ordination 
for bishops should continue in that capacity 
for life. It is true that in designating men 
for the position he called them "superin- 
tendents." This he did because he objected 
to the title "bishop," as carrying with it the 
idea of aristocracy — a pompousness that did 
not well accord with the simplicity of Meth- 
odism and the lowly lives of the great major- 
ity of his disciples. He would make the of- 
fice as acceptable as possible to preachers and 
people without divesting it of any needed 
authority. Some time after the Christmas 
Conference Mr. Wesley learned that Asbury 
allowed himself to be called "bishop." To 
this he strongly objected, and wrote to the 
bishop to that effect; but not one word did he 
utter in condemnation of the episcopal func- 
tions which Asbury exercised, nor did he hint 
that the superintendency was a temporary ex- 



46 A Short History of Methodism. 

pedient. All this goes to show that it was 
not episcopacy itself, but the assumption of 
a high-sounding title, to v/hich Mr. Wesley 
was opposed. 

There was no objection in America to the 
title u bishop," either among the preachers or 
people. In fact, it was readily accepted. It 
was more convenient than the legal title, and 
soon supplanted it in general usage. The peo- 
ple saw in the men who filled the office noth- 
ing to arouse prejudice; not even in Dr. 
Coke, who, in the language of the times, was 
u a born gentleman." He was a man of 
courtly manners, and brotherly in his atti- 
tude toward all alike. Asbury was simplicity 
itself, and held the reins of government with 
unyielding hand. In the eyes of all he was a 
reproduction of the apostolic style of preacher 
and ruler in the Church of God. Had there 
been any objection to the title "bishop" in 
the early days of American Methodism, con- 
tact with this holy man would have silenced it 
without difficulty. 

In the beginning of the practical workings 
of Methodism the system was more than epis- 
copal — it was patriarchal, Mr. Wesley being 
the father. He exercised more authority than 
any bishop ever dared to exercise, and his 



The Polity of Methodism, 47 



right in the matter was never questioned. Up 
to 1784, and for several years afterwards, his 
authority was recognized in America as well 
as in England. The preachers at the Christ- 
mas Conference pledged themselves to this 
effect, saying: " During Mr. Wesley's life we 
acknowledge ourselves his sons in the gospel, 
ready, in matters belonging to Church gov- 
ernment, to obey his commands. " This pledge 
was omitted from the Minutes of the Confer- 
ence before Mr. Wesley died, not because the 
preachers declined in respect or loyalty, but 

(1) because Mr. Wesley being at such a great 
distance from the scene of action could not 
always know the needs of the Church, and 

(2) because they had their own bishops on the 
ground, and the polity of the Church was 
sufficiently fixed and understood to allow them 
to carry on their own work under the direc- 
tion of their own superintendents. Metho- 
dism was a fully organized Church, episcopal 
in its government, and the bishops knew what 
Israel ought to do. 



CHAPTER VII. 



DEVELOPMENT OF THE CHURCH IDEA— DISCI- 
PLINE. 

Discipline is necessary to the efficient work- 
ing of all organizations. Anarchy itself could 
never bring its promoters together, nor into 
any kind of cooperation, without specifying its 
purpose and adopting rules of conduct. This 
necessity is universally recognized. Churches 
are not excepted. Our Lord impressed this 
fact in the plainest and most emphatic manner, 
and made the Church, in the matter of moral 
conduct, the court of last resort. 

Under the preaching of Mr. Wesley many 
souls were converted. He had no desire to 
separate them from the Established Church, 
but they were so entirely neglected by the 
clergy, and in many instances treated with 
such contempt, that they were as sheep without 
a shepherd. c fc They naturally longed," as one 
historian says, "for the fellowship of kin- 
dred spirits. At their own request, they were 
united together for mutual comfort and edifi- 
cation." Under the circumstances Mr. Wes- 
ley drew up a set of rules for their govern- 
(48) 



Discipline. 



49 



rnent. These he called 4 ' The General Rules of 
the United Society," which, with the excep- 
tion of one or two slight changes, have consti- 
tuted the magna charta of every Methodist 
Society from that clay to the present. The 
rules were prefaced by Mr. Wesley with a 
short account of their origin, as follows: 

In the latter end of the year 1739 eight or ten 
persons came to me in London, who appeared to be 
deeply convinced of sin, and earnestly groaning for 
redemption. They desired (as did two or three more 
the next day) that I would spend some time with 
them in prayer, and advise them how to flee from the 
wrath to come, which they saw continually hanging 
over their heads. That we might have more time for 
this great work, I appointed a day when they might 
all come together; which, from thenceforward, they 
did every week, viz., on Thursday in the evening. 
To these, and as many more as desired to join with 
them (for their number increased daily), I gave those 
advices from time to time which I judged most need- 
ful .for them ; and we always concluded our meet- 
ings with prayer suitable to their several necessities. 
This was the rise of the United Society, first in Lon- 
don, and then in other places. (See Discipline.) 

The careful reader will observe that these 
rules are entirely catholic in spirit, requiring 
nothing of an applicant for membership that 
is not required in the word of God. Mr. 
Wesley said: "All these we know God's Spirit 
4 



50 A Short History of Methodism. 

writes on every truly awakened heart." It 
has been said that these rules embrace nothing 
that can " hardly be called an ecclesiastical 
requisition." This is not strictly true, unless 
reference is had exclusively to doctrinal teach- 
ings, for it is certainly a fact, so far as Epis- 
copal Methodism is concerned, that they have 
" become a part of the constitutional law of 
the Church. 9 ' Every specification under a 
general charge of immorality may be based 
on one of these, save the grosser sins of men, 
which are so clearly inconsistent with Chris- 
tian life and conduct that the trial of those 
guilty of them is specially provided for else- 
where. These rules, simple, comprehensive, 
and scriptural, have been the means of saving 
the Church much special legislation. 

Let it be noted that the General Rules have 
reference only to the personal life and charac- 
ter of Methodists — forbidding them to do evil, 
on the one hand, and enjoining upon them the 
duty of doing good, on the other. In addition, 
a general code is an absolute necessity. Official 
character and conduct must be defined and 
guarded. No man in Methodism is a law unto 
himself, no matter how high he may be in 
office. The power and function of every Con- 
ference must be determined. The temporal 



Discivline. 



51 



interests of the Church, such as the support of 
the ministry and the building* of churches and 
parsonages, are to be provided for and regu- 
lated. Benevolent enterprises are to be fos- 
tered and so cared for as to be made as efficient 
as possible. Accordingly, the work of the Con- 
ferences has been systematized, directions are 
given concerning the raising and distribution 
of money, and boards and societies are organ- 
ized, and the work of each clearly defined. In- 
deed, everything in Methodism is worked by 
rule. The law is clearly determined and set 
forth in the Book of Discipline. 

The first Discipline of Episcopal Methodism 
was issued in 1785. Since the year 1808, when 
a delegated General Conference was provided 
for, a new edition of the Discipline has been 
published every fourth year. This is necessary 
on account of the "changes in economy" in- 
variably effected at each session of the General 
Conference. 

Observe: the polity of Methodism is fixed, 
and cannot be altered except by revolution; but 
the rules and regulations necessary to make 
that polity efficient are subject to amendment, 
or modification, or even to repeal. A majori- 
ty of the General Conference suffices to change 
any law of the Church except such as are of a 



52 A Short History of Methodism. 

constitutional character and guarded by re- 
strictive rules. The changes of economy have 
been so numerous during the one hundred and 
more years since the first Discipline was pub- 
lished that the edition of to-day bears but lit- 
tle resemblance to the original issues. The es- 
sential features, however, remain. 

Since the organization of the Church, im- 
portant and radical measures have been intro- 
duced. In the beginning the government of 
the Church was entirely in the hands of the 
ministry. As far back as 1790 an effort was 
made to divide the responsibility with the laity. 
The effort did not succeed, but agitation con- 
tinued under the leadership of James O'Kelly, 
who, in connection with three or four preach- 
ers, at the Conference of 1793 was announced 
as having u formally withdrawn" from the 
Church. They organized a separate Church 
under the title of " Republican Methodists." 
Its existence was of short duration. A more 
formidable secession occurred in 1830, when the 
" Methodist Protestant Church" was organized. 
In this body "the laity is admitted to an equal 
participation with the clergy in all Church leg- 
islation and government." 

In 1866 the Methodist Episcopal Church, 
South, through her representatives, voluntari- 



Discipline. 



53 



Iy, and without previous agitation, resolved to 
divide responsibility with laymen, and arranged 
for equal lay and clerical representation in the 
General Conference, and also provided for lay 
representation in the Annual Conferences with 
all the privileges of the body except a vote on 
"ministerial character and relations." At a 
subsequent General Conference the words 
"and relations" were stricken out, so that at 
the present time there is no restriction on the 
vote of laymen except as to "ministerial char- 
acter." The action of the General Conference 
providing for lay representation in the coun- 
cils of the Church was indorsed by an almost 
unanimous vote of the Annual Conferences; 
and the provisional delegates elected by their 
respective Annual Conference constituents 
were present in full force at the next session 
in 1870, and participated in its deliberations. 
The lay delegates to the Annual Conferences, 
four from each presiding elder's district, were 
elected by the District Conference, provision 
for which had also been made in 1866. In the 
election of lay delegates to the Conferences, 
Annual or General, only laymen and local 
preachers have a voice. 

Never was a measure in Church economy, of 
such magnitude, carried with greater ease or 



54: A Short History of Methodism. 

with less excitement than the introduction of 
laymen into the lawmaking and executive as- 
semblies of Southern Methodism. No addition 
of such a vast force to the working machinery 
of the Church ever acted with less friction. 
The laymen have not only worked in harmony 
with their clerical brethren, but have under all 
circumstances exhibited a conservative spirit, 
and a spirit of loyalty to the doctrines and 
usages of the Church that augurs good for all 
the future. 

The Methodist Episcopal Church introduced 
partial lay representation into the General 
Conference about ten years subsequent to the 
action of the Southern branch. Strong efforts 
have been made to secure equal representation 
in the General Conference of that body, but 
the question, twice presented in connection 
with other matters about which there was great 
diversity of sentiment, was defeated. Not un- 
til it was brought before the Annual Confer- 
ences as a single proposition, and solely on 
its merits, did it command the constitutional 
number of votes. It was adopted by a large 
majority. The action of the Annual Confer- 
ences was confirmed by the General Confer- 
ence of 1900. 

The Discipline provides for the uniform 



Discipline. 



55 



working of every branch of the service 
throughout the Church. Episcopal Metho- 
dism is connectional, that is, all the churches 
and members are governed by the same laws 
under general superintendents. In the ad- 
ministration of law, one man cannot deviate 
from the written code without being an inno- 
vator or a revolutionist. To play the role of 
either would subject him to trial for maladmin- 
istration. One Methodist Episcopal Church 
in spirit and aim, in doctrine and discipline, 
and in everything else that enters into the con- 
stitution of a Wesleyan Society, is the type of 
all other Methodist Episcopal Churches in the 
world. Peculiarities of section and customs 
of society may in some respects differentiate 
congregations from each other, but the con- 
nectional bond makes them all one. They all 
" mind the same thing." 

The Discipline as we have it to-day is the 
result of growth and experience. It is an ev- 
idence of the wisdom of men who all along 
have known how to adapt the machinery of 
the Church so as to secure the best adminis- 
tration and effect the best results. Our fa- 
thers were not so unwise as to bind on future 
generations rules of an iron-clad nature that 
could neither be worked nor changed. But set- 



56 A Short History of Methodism. 

tling on certain principles which they deemed 
necessary to the efficiency of an Episcopal form 
of government, they left themselves and pos- 
terity free so to change the details that the 
Church might be able to meet the conditions 
of society in all coming time. How well the 
Church has fulfilled its mission, the records 
amply show. 



CHAPTER VIII. 



DEVELOPMENT OF THE CHURCH IDEA — THE 
CREED OF METHODISM. 

Stevens, in his " History of Methodism," 
says : 6 ; The celebrated jurist Blackstone had the 
curiosity, early in the reign of George HI. , to 
go from church to church to hear every cler- 
gyman of note in London. He assures us that 
he heard not a single discourse which had more 
Christianity in it than the writings of Cicero; 
and that it would have been impossible for 
him to discover, from what he heard, whether 
the preacher was a follower of Confucius, of 
Mohammed, or of Christ." Had the great 
lawyer attended a Wesleyan chapel, he would 
have heard no ' ' uncertain sound." Possibly 
he would have heard no preacher "of note," 
but he would have heard the gospel in its pu- 
rity, and by a representative of that class of 
men, just beginning to attract attention, who 
were destined to be heard around the world. 

Not only the manner, but the matter, of 
Wesleyan preaching was new to the men of 
Blackstone 5 s generation. The theology of the 
Church of England was Calvinistic, or rath- 

(57) 



58 A Short History of Methodism. 



er, Augustinian, It was incorporated in the 
"Thirty- nine Articles/ 5 and remains there to 
this day. The only controversy of any im- 
portance or magnitude among the early Meth- 
odists was over this question. What was 
called the "Calvinistic Controversy" was 
short and sharp, and decisive so far as the 
Wesleyans were concerned. 

The two leading spirits of the Methodist 
reformation were on opposite sides of the 
controversy. George Whitefield was intensely 
Calvinistic. Wesley was Arminian. They were 
earnest colaborers in preaching evangelical 
religion, as strangely inconsistent as White- 
field's position was, but on the points in con- 
troversy they were far apart. There were 
no sharp personal discussions between them, 
but the result was separation and the organi- 
sation of the Calvinistic Methodists into a sep- 
arate body under the protection of Lady Hunt- 
ingdon, a friend and patron of Whitefield. 
This body was known as the u Huntingdon 
Connection." 

These leaders differed, not only on the de- 
crees, but on the human will and the influence 
of grace. Notwithstanding the separation, 
W esley and Whitefield continued on friendly 
terms, and more or less cooperated with each 



The Creed of Methodism . 59 



other, as did Mr. Wesley with the Huntingdon 
Connection, up to 1770, the year of White- 
field's death. Mr . Wesley ' 'preached the funeral 
sermon of the great chief cf Calvinistic Meth- 
odism, Whitefield, in the chapels of Lady Hunt- 
ingdon, in London and elsewhere." 

Not until 1770, after the death of Whitefield, 
was the blow delivered which finally separated 
the contending parties, and practically ended 
the career of the Calvinistic Methodists. This 
was at the Conference of that year which 
adopted what w^as known in the succeeding 
controversy as Wesley's Minute on Calvinism. 
Lady Huntingdon was mortally offended, and 
never became fully reconciled to Mr. Yv r esley. 
It was three months after this Conference that 
Mr. Wesley preached Whitefield's funeral ser- 
mon as above noted. Had Lady Huntingdon 
been fully aware of the 4 6 Minute" and the effect 
it was destined to produce, it is more than prob- 
able that she would have forbidden Mr. W es- 
ley the use of her chapels even for a funeral 
oration in memory of her devoted friend. 
She did at last exclude him from her pulpits 
altogether. Mr. Wesley's " Minute " drew the 
line of division distinctly between Arminian- 
ism and Calvinism, and rejected the latter as 
tending " morally and logically to Antino- 



60 A Short History of Methodism. 

mianism." See Stevens's u History of Meth- 
odism," Vol. II. , pages 32, 33. 

The controversy which followed the adop- 
tion of Wesley's "Minute" waxed warm, and 
was continued for six years. It developed 
strong men on both sides, among whom on 
the Calvinistic side were Romaine, Venn, 
Shirley, Madan, Rowland Hill, and Augustus 
Toplady. Toplady was easily the foremost 
man on that side in mental strength, and the 
more readily and heartily entered into the con- 
troversy because he was a bitter opponent of 
Mr. Wesley. This opposition amounted appar- 
ently to personal enmity. The champion on 
the Wesleyan side was John Fletcher, not 
only the saintliest man, but the strongest, 
the most incisive, and the most polished 
writer of his day. As a polemic he was 
without a peer, and from beginning to the 
end of all his controversial work, which was 
voluminous, there is not to be found the least 
trace of bitterness or venom, the very oppo- 
site in spirit to that of his chief antagonist, 
Toplady, whose writings are characterized as 
full of u vituperation." 

The long controversy ended in the com- 
plete vindication of the Wesleyan position, 
and fixed for all time the doctrinal status of 



The Creed of Methodism. 



61 



Methodism. W esley was the leading teacher, 
as he had been the organizer of the Metho- 
dists. Long before Fletcher became a Meth- 
odist, Wesley had preached Arminianism all 
over England. In the very beginning of his 
ministry he preached free grace, and threw the 
responsibility of its acceptance or rejection 
on the individual to whom the offer of grace 
was made. This necessarily implied the doc- 
trine of the freedom of the will, which, to 
the mind of the Calvinists, looked something 
like justification by works, which was as stren- 
uously denied by Mr. Wesley as by any Cal- 
vinist on earth. It was around this thought, 
with its cognates, that the great battle of 
words was fought. 

Notwithstanding Mr. Wesley's well-known 
theology, which he had been preaching for 
more than forty years, and for many years 
had examined and expounded in the Confer- 
ences, he had not, up to the close of the great 
controversy, formulated any special system 
of doctrine for the Methodists. Two reasons 
might be assigned for this: (1) There was 
no demand for anything of the kind. The 
Societies, either in general or in particular, 
did not constitute a separate or independent 
Church, Mr. Wesley and his followers were 



62 A Short History of Methodism. 

members of the Church of England, which 
had a well-defined creed set forth in the 
"Thirty-nine Articles." True, this creed 
embraced some things that Mr. Wesley did 
not believe, but it contained much that he did 
believe. The creed itself was inflexible — pos- 
sibly, so far as the Church was concerned, 
unchangeable — but somehow it seems that 
those who were ordained to the ministry were 
not bound to accept and preach it in its en- 
tirety. At any rate, the ministry as a whole 
were not agreed. There were two parties, an 
Arminian and a Calvinistic. So long as such 
a state of things existed in the ministry, there 
was no necessity to formulate a creed for the 
Societies; particularly so, as he was allowed 
to preach in his own way unmolested by the 
authorities. (2) Mr. Wesley and his follow- 
ers were more concerned about the salvation 
of men and their experience in grace than 
they were about the decrees of God. So long 
as they exercised their free agency in accept- 
ing Christ and working out their salvation, 
they were content. 

When the time was ripe for the formula- 
tion of a creed, Mr. Wesley was ready, and 
responded. This was in 1784, when he or- 
dained Dr. Coke and sent him to America 



The Creed of Methodism. 



63 



to organize the Societies into a Church 
and to ordain the preachers. What he 
did in this respect is found in our Articles 
of Eeiigion (see Discipline), twenty-five in 
number, which are an abridgment of the 
Articles of the English Church. The English 
Articles as a whole did not suit Mr. Wesley. 
Some of them he eliminated entirely; others 
were changed for the sake of simplicity and 
to bring them more completely into harmony 
with his views of the Scriptures. These Ar- 
ticles were placed in the hands of Dr. Coke, 
who, in compliance with Mr. Wesley's wishes, 
laid them before the " Christmas Conference "; 
and they were adopted by that body as "the 
Articles of Religion of the Methodist Episco- 
pal Church." Six years later (1790) they 
were incorporated in the Discipline. But the 
Articles of Religion did not embrace all the 
doctrines that the Methodists believed and 
preached. The doctrine of justification by 
faith is set forth in the ninth Article, and 
constituted the basis of much of the preach- 
ing of Mr. Wesley, as it did that of Martin 
Luther and the apostles. It deserved promi- 
nence. He also insisted on the " witness of ~ 
the Spirit" and the doctrine of " Christian 
perfection" — two other staples of Methodist 



64 A Sliort History of Methodism. 

preaching, neither of which is mentioned 
in the Articles of Eeligion. However, they 
are fully set forth and defended in his pub- 
lished " Sermons " and his " Notes on the New 
Testament, 5 ' which together constituted the 
" Standards of Doctrine" of the Wesleyan 
Methodists. This is expressly stated in Mr. 
Wesley's " Model Deed," prepared at an early 
period of his history,' providing for the re- 
tention of the chapels and the filling of their 
pulpits with men who would preach "no oth- 
er doctrines than those contained in Wesley's 
' Notes on the New Testament' and in his 
four volumes of 4 Sermons. ' " (Tyerman, Vol. 
EL, page 417.) 

In the course of time Mr. Wesley was con- 
vinced that the "Model Deed" would not 
stand the test before the courts, because it did 
not sufficiently define the executive authority, 
namely, "the yearly Conference of the peo- 
ple called Methodists." To remedy this he 
executed, on February 28, 1784, his "Deed 
of Declaration," and had it "enrolled in the 
high court of chancery." Tyerman does not 
say that the "Model Deed" was enrolled in 
connection with the "Deed of Declaration," 
but the presumption is that it was, and if so, 
not only the chapels of the connection were 



The Creed of Methodism, 



65 



secured, but likewise the doctrinal standards 
became a matter of permanent record and un- 
changeable. If the standards of doctrine pre- 
scribed in the Model Deed received attention 
and ratification at the organization of the Amer- 
ican Church in 1784, there is no record of it. If 
ratified at any subsequent time, it was by impli- 
cation and not by specific legislation. Never- 
theless both the " Notes" and the "Sermons" 
have been regarded as authority among Amer- 
ican Methodists, and respected as such. 

The standards of doctrine cannot be abro- 
gated, or modified in any way. Even the 
General Conference, the supreme lawmaking 
body of the Church, cannot touch them. It 
is expressly provided by restrictive rule that 
they are to remain intact. Other constitu- 
tional measures may be changed by the co- 
operation of the General and Annual Confer- 
ences, but a proviso excepts the first restrict- 
ive rule which guards the doctrinal standards. 
Nothing short of a revolution and overthrow 
of constitutional Methodism can do away 
with the present existing standards, or add 
anything to the Articles of Religion. This 
statement applies equally to both the Metho- 
dist Episcopal Church and the Methodist Epis- 
copal Church, South. 
5 



CHAPTER IX. 



DEVELOPMENT OF THE CHURCH IDEA— THE 
MINISTRY. 

John Wesley was a minister of the Church 
of England, though not in the least affected by 
the high-church ideas of that establishment. 
He utterly repudiated the claim of apostolic 
succession, which was supposed to be essential 
to valid ordination. But he recognized the 
Church as competent to confer ministerial or- 
ders, and as he had been ordained a presbyter 
he felt authorized to ordain others. But he 
did not act hastily; nor did he exercise what 
he conceived to be his prerogative for the So- 
cieties in England. He waited until the de- 
mand for ordained preachers in America could 
no longer remain unheeded; then, deeming 
himself providentially called to supply the de- 
mand, as he clearly sets forth in the certificate 
of ordination of Dr. Coke, he " set apart" three 
men, as noted elsewhere, by the " imposition 
of hands," and commissioned them to qualify, 
in like manner, their brethren in the United 
States for the administration of the holy sac- 
raments. The ordination of Dr. Coke occurred 
on the second day of September, 1784. 
(66) 



The Ministry. 



67 



Such was the beginning of the ordained min- 
istry of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Mr. 
Wesley's right to ordain has never been ques- 
tioned among Methodists, except by such as 
have convinced themselves that the imposition 
of the hands of men in direct and unbroken 
succession from the apostles is essential to 
ordination. All such, few in number, have 
promptly vacated their places and gone where 
they belonged. 

The ministry of Methodism is not profes- 
sional. There may be a few men in the ranks 
who have chosen the work in preference to 
something else, but all declare themselves to 
be called of God. The Discipline 94) pre- 
scribes a method of trying those who profess 
to be moved by the Holy Ghost to preach: 

Let the following questions be asked, namely: 

1. Do they know God as a pardoning God? Have 
they the love of God abiding in them? Do they de- 
sire nothing but God? And are they holy in all man- 
ner of conversation? 

2. Have they gifts (as well as grace) for the work? 
Have they (in some tolerable degree) a clear, sound 
understanding, a right judgment in the things of 
God, a just conception of salvation by faith? Do 
they speak justly, readily, clearly? 

3. Have they fruit? Are any truly convinced of 
sin and converted to God by their preaching? 

4. As long as these three marks concur in any one, 



68 A Short History of Methodism,. 

we believe he is called of God to preach. These we 
receive as sufficient proof that he is moved by the 
Holy Ghost. 

These tests were applied by Mr. Wesley to 
applicants for license to preach, as shown by 
the " Large Minutes, 55 and were adopted by 
the American Methodists at the organiza- 
tion in 1784. They remain as tests to this 
day. 

Mr. Wesley 5 s test questions were common 
sense in their character, and based on two facts: 
(1) that God calls men, and separates them 
unto the gospel; (2) that the Church must 
be satisfied of their call and qualification. 
God and the Church cooperate in the great 
work of the gospel. God calls and qualifies 
whom he will. The Church indorses and thus 
guards both itself and the world against the 
imposition of ungodly men. 

Methodism recognizes orders in the minis- 
try. Properly so. Not that a definite num- 
ber of orders is prescribed in the Scriptures, 
but because a proper gradation, taking into 
consideration the time of probation, the char- 
acter of work and course of study required of 
all candidates, is necessary to the efficiency 
of ministers, whether as pastors or laborers 
in a different capacity. In thus subjecting 



The Ministry. 



69 



preachers to trial, the Church obeys the apos- 
tolic injunction, "Lay hands suddenly on no 
man." By the time a man has passed through 
the whole process required to reach the higher 
ministry of the Church, his worth is well 
known — his status fairly determined by his 
brethren. 

It is clear that Mr. Wesley modeled Metho- 
dist orders after the orders of the Church of 
England, save that he distinctly repudiated 
the idea of succession. When he selected two 
unordained men to accompany Dr. Coke to 
America to assist in the ordination of preach- 
ers for the new Church, he first ordained them 
to the office of deacon, and the next day raised 
them from this 6 4 inferior office" to the office 
of elder, called "the higher ministry of the 
Church." At the same time he ordained Dr. 
Coke, already an elder or presbyter, to the of- 
fice of general superintendent; or, as one his- 
torian has said, u He made Coke a bishop and 
called him a general superintendent." 

It is clear, from the facts above cited, that 
whether Mr. Wesley recognized three orders 
in the ministry or only two, he did ordain to 
three, and provided forms of consecration ac- 
cordingly. If he intended only two orders, 
and the third man to fill only an office, and to 



70 A Short History of Methodism. 

have no distinction save that of " chief among 
equals," he did not so inform Dr. Coke; nor 
did he write to the American Methodists to 
that effect. That he designed bishops to be 
selected from among the elders, following the 
example of the Alexandrian Church, was in 
accordance with "the fitness of things," else 
the Christmas Conference could have properly 
authorized the ordination of Mr. Asbury as 
a bishop without his having to undergo the 
process of ordination first as a deacon, then 
as an elder, and finally as a bishop or superin- 
tendent. 

The Christmas Conference accepted Dr. 
Coke in his capacity as general superintend- 
ent or bishop because he was commissioned by 
Mr. Wesley with authority, by "the imposi- 
tion of hands," as demanded by Dr. Coke, to 
do that which Mr. Asbury had not authority 
to do, though he was general superintendent 
of the work before Dr. Coke appeared on the 
scene. That which Dr. Coke had authority to 
do was to ordain. This Mr. Asbury hereto- 
fore had not. And even though the power to 
ordain inhered in the eldership, according to 
Mr. Wesley's view, it could not be lawfully 
exercised except in case of emergency. In the 
presence of a living bishop in the person of 



The Ministry. 



71 



Dr. Coke, the argument of emergency could 
not foe urged by American Methodists, without 
repudiating Mr. Wesley's rightful authority 
altogether. This they never thought of doing. 
They accepted Dr. Coke's superintendency, 
with all that it implied, without question. That 
the Conference understood the matter in the 
light here suggested seems evident from the 
statement of Mr. Asbury, who says: "It was 
agreed to form ourselves into an Episcopal 
Church, and to have superintendents, elders, 
and deacons." 

At the organization of the Church nothing 
was said about the tenure of office. It was not 
necessary. It would have been out of order, 
for Dr. Coke, who was authorized to organize 
the "Societies into a distinct Church," was al- 
ready in orders and the superintendent of the 
work. By appointment of Mr. Wesley, and 
ordination, he superseded Mr. Asbury. The 
Conference elected the latter to like office, but 
never thought for a moment of placing a time 
limit to the exercise of his functions. In the 
absence of anything to the contrary, they 
naturally conceded the life tenure of office, as 
doubtless Mr. Wesley intended, an inference 
fairly drawn from the fact that the models 
after whom he fashioned the Methodist Epis- 



72 A Short History of Methodism. 

copacy were retained in office for life. Had 
Mr. Wesley intended Dr. Coke and his suc- 
cessors to act merely as temporary chairmen, 
as do the presidents of the present Wesleyan 
Church in England, he would not have gone 
to the trouble of preparing a form of conse- 
cration and enjoining it as a part of the Metho- 
dist ritual. 

The Christmas Conference took the precau- 
tion to make u the elected superintendent or 
bishop amenable to the body of ministers and 
preachers." But this is not to be understood 
as putting a bishop in such relation to the 
Church that its representatives in the General 
Conference may dispossess him of his office at 
pleasure. Amenableness "to the body of 
ministers and preachers" carries with it no 
such idea. The meaning is that he is account- 
able to the General Conference for his official 
and moral conduct, and cannot be deposed ex- 
cept for cause. 

To limit the tenure of office, or depose an 
incumbent without cause, would at once de- 
stroy the importance and influence of the Epis- 
copacy as a connectional bond, and lower the 
dignity of the office at once below the level of 
the eldership, or even of the diaconate. Men 
are invested with these offices, together with 



The Ministry. 



73 



all the functions that pertain to them, for life. 
They are never unfrocked at the pleasure of 
their peers. It would have been unpardona- 
bly inconsistent in the founders of Methodism 
to invest the inferior officers of the Church 
with orders for life, and at the same time sub- 
ject their chief pastors to a time limit that 
necessarily would have required a reelection 
or retirement. The fathers were not thus 
guilty. Whatever their views in regard to the 
nature and prerogatives of the Episcopacy, 
they were consistent, and handed down to 
their successors an order of chief pastors, 
binding them to blamelessness of life and 
fidelity to the Church, and enjoining on the 
body of preachers obedience as sons in the 
gospel. 

The majority of Methodists in America ad- 
here to the original form of Episcopal govern- 
ment, and elect their bishops for life. The 
exceptions are, the Methodist Protestant 
Church, organized in 1830, which repudiates 
the Episcopacy in toto; and the Free Metho- 
dist Church, which has substituted a general 
superintendency for the Episcopacy, the su- 
perintendents being elected every four years. 
To these may be added the United Brethren in 
Christ, a zealous, evangelical order somewhat 



74 A Short History of Methodism. 

after the fashion of Methodists, organized in 
1800, who retain the Episcopacy but limit the 
tenure of office to a term of years. The Wes- 
leyan Methodist Church of England, the 
mother of all, is thoroughly itinerant in spirit 
and practice, but has for chief executive a 
president who is elected annually. As a rule 
the Wesleyan president serves but one year. 



CHAPTER X. 



THE ECONOMY OF METHODISM — THE LEGISLA- 
TIVE AND EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENTS. 

Methodism in its beginning was purely 
local, its originators having no thought of 
a system coextensive with the little Eng- 
lish isle, much less did they dream of a 
great Church destined to spread its blessings 
throughout the whole world. But as numbers 
increased and opportunities multiplied, it was 
seen to be well adapted to the popular mind, 
and capable of indefinite expansion. 

The controlling passion of Methodists was 
to spread holiness — to save sinners and pro- 
mote personal piety among themselves. To 
accomplish this work to the best advantage, 
a properly organized government was neces- 
sary. The system — method itself, and per- 
fectly suited to the times in which it was 
born, and worked to perfection under the ad- 
ministration of Mr. Wesley — must be so ad- 
justed as to be able to meet the demands of 
all times and all people. A bond of union 
was essential, as also one central or control- 
ling system for which everything else must 
exist. The one is found in the Episcopacy, or 

(75) 



76 A Short History of Methodism. 



general superintendency, the other in the itin- 
erancy. 

Mr. Wesley was the bond of union as long 
as he lived. When he began to grow old, 
seeing that no adequate provision had been 
made for the work after his death, he was 
constrained by wise men to prepare for such 
an emergency, lest the whole system should 
go to pieces, as they foresaw would be the 
case unless something was done. The "Deed 
of Declaration" was executed and recorded, 
and the "Legal Hundred 5 ' 1 appointed. This 
body has held the Wesleyans together and per- 
petuated the itinerancy unimpaired to this 
day. The Episcopacy and the Conferences, 
General and Annual, serve the same purpose 
in America. The history of each is impor- 
tant. Attention is directed first to the Con- 
ferences. 

The General Conference. 

The Christmas Conference was called the 
first General Conference of American Meth- 
odism, not because it was legalized as such, as 

1 One hundred preachers named by Mr. Wesley in 
the "Deed of Declaration," to whom all authority 
was to be transferred after his death. All vacancies 
are filled by the body at its annual meeting. 



The General Conference. 77 



is the General Conference of to-day, but be- 
cause all the preachers were called together 
on that occasion. From the date of the first 
Conference in America in 1773 to the Confer- 
ence of 1784 there was only one Annual Con- 
ference; but in the course of a few years, on 
account of the extensive territory covered 
and the great inconvenience of coming to- 
gether, it met in two sections. One section, 
the northern, in point of membership and 
number of preachers, was much stronger than 
the southern section; so much so that w T hat 
was done by the northern section was binding 
on the southern, while what was done by the 
southern section was not binding unless sanc- 
tioned by the northern. At the Christmas 
Conference both sections came together, and 
hence it was called a General Conference. 
For many years after this all the preachers 
were entitled to seats in the body, but the 
constantly increasing numbers and widening 
territory made it impracticable for them to 
assemble annually except in sections. Not 
until 1792 did all the preachers come together 
again. This they did in Baltimore, in the 
second General Conference of the Church. 
The Church had grown in these eight years 
from about fifteen thousand members to sixty- 



78 A Short History of Methodism,. 



five thousand nine hundred and eighty, and 
from less than one hundred preachers to two 
hundred and sixty-six. 

As the Church strengthened and the Con- 
ferences multiplied — though up to 1796 no 
Conference had a well-defined boundary— it 
became necessary to change the method of 
constituting the General Conference. It was 
inconvenient and expensive to bring all the 
preachers together, even once in four years. 
Naturally the central Conferences, having 
easy access to the place of meeting, had a 
larger preponderance of representatives. Four 
of these central Conferences at the session of 
1808 had one hundred representatives out of 
one hundred and twenty-nine members pres- 
ent on the opening day. Two Conferences 
lacked only three members of composing half 
the body. Such a preponderance of repre- 
sentatives from one section did not appear to 
be best for the whole connection. 

It was proposed in 1800 to have a " dele- 
gated General Conference." The proposition 
met with but little favor. It was renewed in 
1804 and again rejected, but with the under- 
standing that the Annual Conferences might 
consider the matter and present it at the next 
session with ' 6 matured suggestions. " Accord- 



The General Conference. 79 



ingly a memorial was before the Conference of 
1808. A committee of fourteen was appoint- 
ed to consider the subject. This committee, 
after due deliberation, "reported a form of 
law, a species of constitution, for a repre- 
sentative General Conference." This report 
was rejected by a majority of seven in a vote 
of one hundred and twenty-one. Bishop As- 
bury and other chief advocates of the measure 
were "profoundly afflicted." The members 
from the far west, who, for the sake of rep- 
resentation, and because all could not attend, 
had been elected, together with the New En- 
gland members, "retired, and threatened to 
return home." Consultations ensued, and the 
subject was resumed, the result being the adop- 
tion of the report substantially as it came from 
the committee, by an almost unanimous vote. 

The plan adopted was mainly the work of 
Joshua Soule, one of the sub-committee of 
three who drafted the report. It provided 
that the General Conference should be com- 
posed of one member for every five members 
of each Annual Conference, to be selected 
4 4 by seniority or choice. " The delegates were 
to be taken from among the preachers in full 
connection with the Annual Conference. The 
ratio of representation was rather large, but 



80 A Short History of Methodism. 



not too large for that day. Since then the 
ratio has been frequently changed. At the 
present time the ratio in the Methodist Epis- 
copal Church is one clerical member for every 
forty-five members of each Annual Confer- 
ence, with an equal number of lay members. 
In the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, 
the ratio is "one clerical member for every 
forty-eight members of each Annual Confer- 
ence, and an equal number of lay members. 
Of the lay members from an Annual Confer- 
ence one may be a local preacher." The law 
allows an additional delegate for u a fraction 
of two-thirds the number which shall be fixed 
for the ratio of representation." It is further 
provided u that no Conference shall be denied 
the privilege of two delegates, one clerical and 
one lay." 

The General Conference of every branch of 
Episcopal Methodism meets "once in four 
years." Special provision is made for extra 
sessions in case of necessity. One of the gen- 
eral superintendents presides over the body. 
In case there is no general superintendent 
present, the Conference chooses a president 
pro tempore. As a rule they preside from day 
to day in the order of their election, begin- 
ning with the senior. In the General Confer- 



The General Conference. 81 



ence nothing is legal if done in the absence of 
a quorum prescribed by law. In the Metho- 
dist Episcopal Church the law requires two- 
thirds of the whole number of delegates to 
transact business. In the Methodist Episco- 
pal Church, South, only a majority of the rep- 
resentatives is required to make a quorum. 

The General Conference is the lawmaking 
body of Methodism. No other Conference is 
charged with such a responsibility. In this 
respect it is fully empowered under the fol- 
lowing limitations and restrictions, namely: 

(1) The General Conference shall not revoke, alter, 
or change our Articles of Keligion, or establish any 
new standards or rules of doctrine contrary to our 
present existing and established standards of doc- 
trine. 

(2) They shall not allow of more than one repre- 
sentative for every eighteen members of the Annual 
Conference, nor allow of a less number than one for 
every sixty: provided, nevertheless, that when there 
shall be in any Annual Conference a fraction of two- 
thirds the number which shall be fixed for the ratio 
of representation, such Annual Conference shall be 
entitled to an additional delegate for such fraction: 
and provided, also, that no Conference shall be de- 
nied the privilege of two delegates, one clerical and 
one lay. 

(3) They shall not change or alter any part or rule 
of our government, so as to do away Episcopacy, or 

6 



82 A Short History of Methodism. 



destroy the plan of our itinerant general superintend- 
ency. 

(8) They shall not revoke or change the General 
Rules of the United Societies. 

(4) They shall not do away the privileges of our 
ministers or preachers of trial by a committee, and 
cf an appeal; neither shall they do away the privi- 
leges of our members of trial before the Church, or 
by a committee, and of an appeal. 

(8) They shall not appropriate the produce of the 
Publishing House to any purpose other than for the 
benefit of the traveling, supernumerary, superannu- 
ated, and wornout preachers, their wives, widows, 
and children. 

Provided, nevertheless, that upon the concurrent 
recommendation of three-fourths of all the members 
of the several Annual Conferences, who shall be 
present and vote on such recommendation, then a 
majority of two-thirds of the General Conference 
succeeding shall suffice to alter any of the above re- 
strictions, excepting the first article; and also, when- 
ever such alteration or alterations shall have been 
first recommended by two- thirds of the General Con- 
ference, so soon as three-fourths of the members of 
all the Annual Conferences shall have concurred as 
aforesaid, such alteration or alterations shall take 
effect: provided, that when any rule or regulation is 
adopted by the General Conference, which, in the 
opinion of the bishops, is unconstitutional, the bish- 
ops may present to the Conference which passed said 
rule or regulation their objections thereto, with their 
reasons, in writing; and if then the General Confer- 
ence shall, by a two- thirds vote, adhere to its action 



TJie General Conference. 



83 



on the said rule or regulation, it shall then take the 
course prescribed for altering a Restrictive Rule, and 
if thus passed upon affirmatively, the bishops shall 
announce that such rule or regulation takes effect 
from that time. 

The Restrictive Rules above quoted are 
taken from the Discipline of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church, South. They are substan- 
tially the same in the Discipline of the Metho- 
dist Episcopal Church, except the proviso in 
regard to the veto power of the Episcopacy, 
with which the Episcopacy of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church has never been invested. 
The Methodist Episcopal Church has also so 
amended the third Restrictive Rule as to allow 
the election of Missionary Bishops, whose juris- 
diction is confined to the work in foreign parts. 
These rules, as adopted by the General Con- 
ference of 1808, left " open to change the fun- 
damental interests of the Church, even its the- 
ology and terms of membership," in that they 
provided for their suspension u by the joint 
recommendation of all the Annual Confer- 
ences together with a majority of two-thirds 
of the General Conference." Thus both the 
economy and the doctrines of the Church were 
virtually at the dictation of the Annual Con- 
ferences, leaving the great body of the Church 



84 A Short History of Methodism. 

without any appeal. In 1832 this defect (for 
such it was) in the organic law of the Church 
was modified so as to require a vote of three- 
fourths of the members of the Annual, and 
two-thirds of the General, Conferences to effect 
a change in any of the Restrictive Rules, ex- 
cept tlra first, which was placed entirely be- 
yond the power of the General Conference to 
alter. The action of 1832 remains unchanged 
to the present time. Very few constitutional 
changes have ever been made. 



CHAPTER XL 



THE ECONOMY OF METHODISM— THE ANNUAL 
CONFERENCE. 

The first Annual Conference was called by 
Mr. Wesley at a time when he and his follow- 
ers were suffering great persecution at the 
hands of lawless mobs. In the midst of his 
troubles he indulged a natural wish and ex- 
claimed, u Ohfor ease and a resting place! Not 
yet, but eternity is at hand." At the same 
time he was deeply concerned for the success 
of his work, and planning for its extension. 
Says Stevens: "He wrote letters to several 
clergymen, and to his lay assistants, inviting 
them to meet him in London, and to give him 
'their advice respecting the best method of 
carrying on the work of God.'" This, histor- 
ically known as the "first Methodist Confer- 
ence" began in the Foundry, London, Mon- 
day, June 25, 1744. Besides John and Charles 
Wesley, there were present John Hodges, 
Henry Piers, Samuel Taylor, and John Meri- 
ton, all ministers of the Church of England. 
The lay preachers present were Thomas Max- 
field, Thomas Richards, John Bennett, and 
John Downs. 

(85) 



86 A Short History of Methodism. 

The first business transacted was the adoption 
of rules for the government of the Conference. 
This done, they considered first, "What to 
teach. " On this point two days were spent in 
discussing ' 4 the theology necessary to be main- 
tained in their preaching." They set forth 
distinctly the scriptural doctrines of repent- 
ance, faith, justification, sanctification, and 
the witness of the Spirit. At the next Con- 
ference the same subjects were carefully re- 
viewed, and in some respects, both as to opin- 
ions and forms of expression, were modified. 
Three days were given to the proposition, 
" What to do, or how to regulate the doctrine, 
discipline, and practice of the ministry and the 
Society." Such was the germ of what is to- 
day the largest and strongest body of dis- 
senters in England, numbering hundreds of 
preachers, traveling and local, and thousands 
of thoroughly evangelical members. The An- 
nual Conference is the governing body in the 
Wesleyan Methodist Church. 

At the date of this first Conference, Mr. 
Wesley had been itinerating about five years. 
Forty-five preachers were in sympathy and 
cooperation with him, besides a considerable 
number of local preachers. Up to this time, 
however, it seems they had entered into no 



The Annual Conference. 



87 



formal compact; but at this Conference they 
adopted a u Rule of Enlistment," requiring 
the president of the Conference to say to 
every candidate that it is his duty to "act in 
all things not according to your own will, but 
as a son in the gospeh As such it is your part 
to employ your time in that manner that we 
direct. . . . Above all, if you labor with us 
in our Lord's vineyard, it is needful you should 
do that part of the work which we direct, at 
those times and places which we judge most 
for his glory. " Thus formally began the work 
of the itinerancy — the promise on the part of 
preachers to be obedient as sons in the gos- 
pel being made in the presence of the Annual 
Conference. The requirement here quoted, as 
originally drawn up, is almost identical in the 
Methodist Episcopal Church, South, In the 
Methodist Episcopal Church the whole is em- 
bodied in a set of questions covering the same 
ground. 

The first Annual Conference of American 
Methodism was held in Philadelphia, begin- 
ning July 1773. It was in session three 
days. The body was composed of ten preach- 
ers: Thomas Rankin, Richard Boardman, 
Joseph Pilmoor, Francis Asbury, Richard 
Wright T George Shadford y Thomas Webb, 



88 A Short History of Methodism. 

John King, Abraham Whitworth, and Joseph 
Yearbry, all Englishmen. Rankin, as general 
assistant (to Mr. Wesley), presided. The 
Conference was conducted after the method 
pursued by Mr. Wesley in England. The au- 
thority of Mr. Wesley and the English Con- 
ference was fully acknowledged, and it was 
agreed to abide by the " doctrine and disci- 
pline of the Methodists as contained in the 
Minutes," which were to be the sole rule of 
conduct of all who desired to " labor in the 
connection with Mr. Wesley in America. 55 

There were no Conference boundary lines. 
The whole country was open and all the ter- 
ritory included as far as the preachers had 
established Societies. Conferences regularly 
formed and geographically described followed 
in due time. The rapid growth of the Church 
in numbers and its spread over the vast area 
of the United States are marvels of the nine- 
teenth century. The history reads like a ro- 
mance. 

The Annual Conference as it exists to-day 
in many respects is familiar to all Methodists, 
and to both preachers and people it is the 
most interesting of all the Conferences. It is 
in no sense a legislative body. It is purely 
executive. It takes cognizance only of such 



The Annual Conference. 



89 



business as is marked out for it by the General 
Conference. Nevertheless its responsibilities 
are great. 

Until recently the Annual Conference of all 
Episcopal Methodist bodies was composed ex- 
clusively of preachers in full connection. The 
Methodist Episcopal Church, South, which 
changed its organic law in 1866 so as to admit 
laymen, is an exception. 1 In that body the 
law provides for four laymen — one of whom 
may be a local preacher — from each presiding 
elder's district, and these together with the 
traveling preachers in full connection compose 
the Annual Conference. The laymen are 
chosen by the District Conference, and have 
equal voice with the preachers in all matters 
" except such as involve ministerial charac- 
ter." The Conference fixes the place of meet- 
ing, and the bishops appoint the time, allow- 
ing each Conference u to sit a week at least" 
if necessary. The bishops preside over the 
Conferences, arranging the plan of episcopal 
visitation among themselves. If no bishop is 
present at the opening of a session, the Confer- 

1 The question of admitting laymen to the Annual 
Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church was 
before the General Conference of that body in 1900. 
It was fully discussed, and decided in the negative. 



90 A Short History of Methodism. 



ence elects a president from among the travel- 
ing elders by ballot and without debate. The 
president thus eleeted is authorized to per- 
form all the duties of a bishop except ordina- 
tion. 

The Annual Conference exercises supervi- 
sion over ail the temporal and spiritual inter- 
ests of the Church within its bounds. A full 
report of the state of the Church is made from 
every mission, circuit, and station of the Con- 
ference. The report includes the number of 
members; the additions during the year on 
profession of faith, and otherwise; the num- 
ber of baptisms, infant and adult; of members 
disposed of by certificate, death, and other- 
wise; of all moneys paid for the support of 
the ministry, and collected for the benevo- 
lent enterprises of the Church, the number of 
Sunday schools, officers, teachers, and schol- 
ars, and Epworth Leagues. In a word, the 
preacher in charge reports everything per- 
taining to his work. All reports are tabulated 
and carefully recorded by secretaries appointed 
for that purpose. 

Every enterprise of the Church is commit- 
ted to a general committee or board by the 
G-eneral Conference, which also requires the 
Annual Conferences to form auxiliary boards 



The Annual Conference. 91 



or committees to look after these interests 
inside of their bounds. Hence there are An- 
nual Conference Boards of Missions, Church 
Extension, Sunday School, Epworth League, 
Education, and Boards of Finance particularly 
charged with the duty of making provision for 
the wornout preachers and widows and chil- 
dren of deceased preachers. These interests are 
reviewed at every Annual Conference. 

Besides all this, every preacher making ap- 
plication for admission into the Annual Con- 
ference is required to stand an approved ex- 
amination on a course of study prescribed by 
the bishops. Then follows a course of read- 
ing embracing a period of four years, with 
annual examinations before committees ap- 
pointed by the Conference. 

The Annual Conference has the oversight 
of all the traveling preachers within its bounds* 
It receives them, first, on trial; then after two 
years, if found suitable for the general work 
of the itinerancy, it receives them into full 
connection. Thus received, they are subject 
to the appointing power, and bound by their 
vows to do the work of itinerant preachers 
at those times and places which are judged 
most for the glory of God. 

Once in the hands of the appointing power, 



92 A Short History of Methodism. 

the preacher passes out of the jurisdiction of 
the Conference, save that he is amenable to it 
for his moral and official conduct. The Con- 
ference cannot appoint him to any work, nor 
otherwise dispose of him, except for immo- 
rality, official misconduct, or inefficiency. As 
an itinerant he can be used by the bishop in 
the Conference that received him, or in any 
Conference where, in the godly judgment of 
the appointing power, he may be needed. 
Under this system every preacher has a place, 
and every place has a preacher. Pastorates re- 
main vacant no longer than the time required 
to furnish the bishop with the information. 

The character and conduct of every preacher 
are carefully examined by the Conference once 
a year, and provision is made for investigation 
at any time when 4 4 under report of immoral- 
ity, or accused thereof in writing signed by 
a minister or member of the Church. 55 In 
nothing are Methodists more particular than 
in this yearly 4 4 examination of character. 55 
This is important, since under the peculiar 
economy of the Church the bishop is obliged 
to give every man under his jurisdiction an 
appointment. He could not, as an overseer 
of the flock of Christ, send out men of impure 
lives. The people would not receive them. 



The Annual Conference. 93 



But when the Annual Conferences c c pass their 
character," indorsing them as " blameless in 
life and official administration," and they are 
sent out, it may be m a strange people, they 
are accepted, and enter at once into the confi- 
dence of the Church. 

The wisdom of the Methodist plan is justi- 
fied by more than a hundred years of useful- 
ness. It secures the Church against the min- 
istry of immoral men, and, as the examina- 
tion includes also inquiry into general fitness 
for the work, it saves the Church from be- 
ing afflicted and injured by men who become 
erratic in conduct or unsound in the faith. The 
Annual Conference is the preacher's under- 
writer, and the people's guarantee of a sound 
and faithful ministry. 

The supreme moment of interest in the An- 
nual Conference is at the close of the session 
w r hen "the list of appointments" is read. It 
is always "to a crowded house and amid 
breathless stillness and deep solemnity." So 
it was in the beginning. But with the mak- 
ing of appointments the Conference, as such, 
has nothing to do. This is exclusively the busi- 
ness of the bishop, done after full consultation 
with the presiding eiders, who are thoroughly 
acquainted with the work and the workers. 



CHAPTER XII. 



THE ECONOMY OF METHODISM — THE MINOR CON- 
FERENCES — THE QUARTERLY CONFERENCE. 

The origin of the Quarterly Conference, or 
meeting as it is called, dates from the first ten 
years of the history of Methodism, but the 
first time such meetings were introduced by 
Mr. Wesley was at the Conference of 1749, 
though stewards were appointed and changed 
several years previously. After 1749 they 
became part of the economy of the Connec- 
tion. (See McClintock and Strong; article, 
" Wesleyans."') 

The Quarterly Conference is the governing 
body of the pastoral charge, whether com- 
posed of only one church, as in the larger 
towns and cities, or of several — sometimes 
amounting to a dozen or more — as on missions 
and circuits. As the name indicates, it is held 
four times a year, the interests of the Church 
demanding a meeting of the officials at least 
that number of times. The place of meeting 
is fixed by the Conference, and the time by 
the presiding elder, who presides. In his ab- 
sence the preacher in charge is president. 

The Quarterly Conference is composed of 
(94) 



The Quarterly Conference. 95 



6 4 all tho traveling and local preachers, includ- 
ing superannuated preachers residing within 
the circuit or station (whether without or 
within the limits of the Annual Conferences 
to which they belong), with the exhorters, 
stewards, trustees who are members of the 
Church, and class leaders, of the respective 
circuits, stations, and missions, together with 
the superintendents of Sunday schools who 
are members 'of the Church, secretaries of 
Church Conferences, and presidents of Sen- 
ior Epworth Leagues, if eligible, and none 
others. " Such is the composition of the Quar- 
terly Conference in the Methodist Episcopal 
Church, South. 

In the Methodist Episcopal Church, the 
law governing reads as follows: " The Quar- 
terly Conference shall be composed of all the 
traveling ministers, local preachers, exhorters, 
stewards, and class leaders within the charge, 
together with the trustees of the church- 
es, the first superintendents of the Sunday 
schools, and the presidents of the Epworth 
League chapters within the charge '.provided, 
that said trustees, superintendents, and presi- 
dents are members of our Church in the 
charge, and approved by the Quarterly Con- 
ference for membership therein." 



96 A Short History of Methodism, 

The business of the Quarterly Conference 
is extensive and of the very first importance. 
Being composed mostly of the laity living 
inside the bounds of the charge, and identified 
with all the local interests of the Church, it is 
readily seen that the Quarterly Conference is, 
so to speak, the fountain head. Success in 
Church work depends largely on the Quar- 
terly Conference. It opens the way for the 
preacher, or blocks his path and renders suc- 
cess impossible. 

The Quarterly Conference stands guard at 
the door to the ministry. Originally license 
to preach, or " conferring the ministerial char- 
acter," was granted by Mr. Wesley on the rec- 
ommendation of the assistant (preacher in 
charge), "with or without consultation with 
the Quarterly Meeting, and sometimes with- 
out the knowledge of the person concerned." 
This method was occasionally followed by 
Bishop Asbury in America. But in process 
of time the work was confined to the Quar- 
terly Conference acting on the recommenda- 
tion of the class to which the applicant be- 
longed, or the Leaders' Meeting. Under the 
law as it exists now, license is granted by 
the District Conference on the recommenda- 
tion of the Quarterly Conference; though the 



The District Conference. 97 



law of the Methodist Episcopal Church is 
slightly flexible, allowing, as it does, the li- 
cense of preachers by the Quarterly Confer- 
ences in those districts in which the District 
Conference is not authorized, and makes lo- 
cal preachers amenable to the one or the other 
according to circumstances. In the Metho- 
dist Episcopal Church, South, local preachers 
are amenable only to the Quarterly Conference, 
which inquires annually "into the gifts, la- 
bors, and usefulness of each man," and is au- 
thorized to try and suspend or expel any local 
preacher who may be found guilty of crime. 
The Quarterly Conference is also the court of 
appeals for members of the Church expelled 
by their respective Societies. 

The Quarterly Conference elects the stew- 
ards of the charge, the recording steward, 
and the district steward. It elects the trus- 
tees of Church property, including houses of 
worship, parsonages, and all other property 
owned by the charge. It also elects Sunday- 
school superintendents. In a word, it has su- 
pervision of the spiritual and temporal inter- 
ests of the Church within the bounds of the 
charge. 

The District Conference. 

The District Conference in some form has 
7 



98 A Short History of Methodism. 

existed a long while. Among the Wesleyans 
it -originated in 1791. It corresponds in some 
respects to the Annual Conference in America. 
"Inquiries are made regarding each minister 
and probationer, as to moral and religious 
character, 55 official conduct, ability to preach, 
etc.; statistics are obtained, home mission 
work is considered, candidates for the minis- 
try are examined. All this is done by the 
preachers. When the stewards join them, the 
funds of each circuit are brought under con- 
sideration. There is also a " financial district 
meeting" held every year. It had its begin- 
ning in 1819. "The finances of each circuit 
are arranged and determined for a year at that 
meeting." 

In the Methodist Episcopal Church the Dis- 
trict Conference is a legalized body with pow- 
ers clearly defined, but it is left with the cir- 
cuits and stations of a district to determine 
whether or not there shall be a District Con- 
ference. After a District Conference has been 
authorized, it "may be discontinued by a vote 
of a majority of the members present at any 
regular session, notice thereof having been 
given at a previous session, and with the con- 
currence of a majority of the Quarterly Con- 
ferences in the district." When organized, it 



The District Conference. 



99 



performs largely the work of the Quarterly 
Conference, especially that of licensing preach- 
ers, taking oversight and entire control of 
local preachers, even going so far as to make 
appointments for them which they are ex- 
pected to fill. 

In the Southern Church the District Confer- 
ence dates its origin from the General Con- 
ference of 1870, and is as much a part of the 
machinery as any Conference of Methodism. 
For many years its powers were limited. They 
were mainly advisory, and the meeting valu- 
able to the district principally on account 
of its social features and the opportunity it 
afforded for spiritual improvement. It trans- 
acted authoritatively only two or three items 
of business, chief of which was the election of 
lay delegates to the Annual Conference. In 
that election laymen and local preachers only 
are allowed to vote. After a few years, au- 
thority was given it to elect trustees for dis- 
trict property. At the General Conference 
of 1894: the work of licensing preachers, and 
recommending preachers to the Annual Con- 
ference for admission on trial into the trav- 
eling connection, and for readmission, and 
for election of local preachers to deacon's 
and elder's orders, was transferred from the 



Lof C. 



100 A Short History of Methodism. 

Quarterly to the District Conference. Local 
preachers are still amenable to the Quarterly 
Conference. 

u The District Conference is composed of 
all the preachers in the district, traveling 
and local, including superannuated preachers 
(whether resident without or within the limits 
of the Annual Conferences to which they be- 
long), and of laymen, the number of whom, 
and their mode of appointment, each Annual 
Conference determines for itself." A bishop, 
or in his absence the presiding elder, presides; 
and if both be absent, the Conference elects a 
president. 

The District Conference has been of great 
benefit to the Church. It has called out and 
utilized intelligent and consecrated laymen, 
who otherwise would never have been known 
beyond the limits of the pastoral charge. 
They have helped spiritually, and have had 
much influence in stimulating the liberality of 
the Church. 

The Church Conference. 

The Church Conference is unknown to the 
Wesleyans of England, and to the Methodist 
Episcopal Church in the United States. The 
meeting nearest akin to it in England is the 



The Church Conference. 101 



" Leaders' Meeting," and in the Methodist 
Episcopal Church the u Leaders' and Stew- 
ards' Meeting," though in both these official 
members only take part. 

This Conference as it exists in the Metho- 
dist Episcopal Church, South, was authorized 
in 1866 under the title of " Church Meeting." 
It was changed to Church Conference in 1870. 

The Discipline says: "All the members 
of the Church, and resident members of 
the Annual Conference, shall come together 
once a month, or on circuits at least every 
three months, at every appointment, to hold a 
Church Conference, over which the preacher 
in charge shall preside. It may be held at 
any time most convenient for assembling the 
greatest number of members; but if on the 
Sabbath, it should not interfere with the 
morning public worship." 

It is the business of this Conference to see 
that a correct roll of the membership is kept. 
The duty is specially enjoined upon the secre- 
tary, who is required to keep a book and enter 
the names in chronological order, and to fur- 
nish the pastor with an alphabetical list. The 
roll is called at every meeting, unless other- 
wise ordered, and the Conference is author- 
ized to strike off the names of any who, on ac- 



102 A Short History of Methodism. 



count of removal or other cause, have been 
lost sight of for twelve months. Members 
whose names have been stricken off may be 
restored by vote of Conference if they appear 
and claim membership. The Conference is 
not a court of trial, nor of inquiry. It only 
purges the roll of members whose wherea- 
bouts are unknown. 

In this Conference the preacher makes a re- 
port of his labors since the last meeting, as do 
the class leaders and stewards. Reports are 
also made from the Sunday schools and Ep- 
worth Leagues. Inquiry is made concerning 
the relief of the poor of the Church, and 
whether the Church is doing its duty for the 
cause of Missions, Church Extension, and oth- 
er enterprises, and for the collections ordered 
by the Annual Conference. The stewards re- 
port to the meeting the whole amount to be 
raised by the charge, and that part of it which 
each congregation is expected to pay. The 
Church Conference may adopt its own method 
of raising the money. The Conference is not 
confined to routine work. It may originate 
work and devise plans for strengthening and 
building up the Church in the community. It 
may be made a great power for good. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

PASTORAL OVERSIGHT. 

The cause of Christ could not prosper 
without pastoral oversight. This necessari- 
ly involves rulership. Hence, those who are 
charged with pastoral care are also invested 
with authority — not to lord it over God's heri- 
tage, but to rule in the fear of God. The 
ministry, by virtue of divine call, and separa- 
tion from the world, is best fitted for this busi- 
ness, and through all the ages has been recog- 
nized as the ruling force in the Church. How- 
ever, it is not believed by all that the authori- 
ty to rule is lodged exclusively in the hands 
of the ministry. Very many Christians of 
learning and piety are of opinion that the 
laity should share in the responsibility of 
directing the affairs of the Church. Protes- 
tants are well agreed on this point, though 
they differ somewhat as to the proper divi- 
sion of the work; some giving laymen a larger 
share in directing spiritual affairs than others, 
while some deny them spiritual or ministerial 
functions altogether. But these matters have 
ceased to be bones of contention among Chris- 
tians. 

(103) 



104 A Short History of Methodism. 

The ministerial force of Episcopal Metho- 
dism is systematically arranged and distrib- 
uted so as to secure pastoral care over every 
department of the Church. No apology is 
made for its system of government or meth- 
ods of work. At the same time no claim is 
made of a "thus saith the Lord" for either, 
believing that no special form of government 
is divinely ordained, and that the Church is 
at liberty to adopt its own methods and to call 
its officers by any name it may deem prop- 
er. Accordingly Methodists have their bish- 
ops, presiding elders, preachers in charge, and 
local preachers. 

Bishops and Their Duties. 

The origin and nature of the Methodist 
Episcopacy have already been set forth. At- 
tention is directed in this connection to the 
duties of a bishop. 

Dr. Coke, the first Methodist bishop, was 
ordained as a " general superintendent," the 
name having been chosen by Mr. Wesley evi- 
dently to guard against the idea of prelacy, 
which, as understood and practiced in the Eng- 
lish Church, was distasteful both to Mr. Wes- 
ley and the Methodists. Still, the term su- 
perintendent and the duties implied are per- 



Bishops and TJieir Duties. 105 

fectly consistent with the New Testament 
teachings in respect to bishops, who are 
therein designated as overseers of the flock of 
Christ. 

Methodist bishops are itinerant general su- 
perintendents, and perform such work as is 
directed by the General Conference in addi- 
tion to those duties over which, by virtue of 
their authority as a coordinate branch of the 
government, they have exclusive control, name- 
ly, arranging the work and fixing the appoint- 
ments of the preachers. This power cannot 
be taken from the Episcopacy by legislation 
of the General Conference. But the power 
constitutionally lodged in the hands of the 
bishops can be regulated. Hence there are 
directions concerning the arranging of the 
work and making the appointments of the 
preachers. The bishop presiding in an An- 
nual Conference is compelled to give every 
properly accredited preacher an appointment. 

In arranging the work and stationing the 
preachers the bishop acts on his own judg- 
ment. He alone is responsible. But, in or- 
der to reach just conclusions, he gathers infor- 
mation from all available sources, mainly from 
the presiding elders, who are thoroughly in- 
formed as to the state and needs of the 



106 A Short History of Methodism. 

Church. These officers form the " Bishop's 
Cabinet," and they hold their consultations in 
private. The bishop " chooses the presiding 
elders, fixes their stations (appoints them to 
districts), and changes them when he judges 
it necessary." He also " changes, receives, 
and suspends in the intervals of the Confer- 
ences, as necessity may require, and as the 
Discipline directs." 

The bishops preside in the General, Annual, 
and District Conferences. They decide all 
questions of law coming before them in the 
regular business of the Annual and District 
Conferences. Their several decisions are re- 
viewed by the College of Bishops at their an- 
nual meeting, and are affirmed or reversed. 
When affirmed, their decisions become author- 
itative interpretations of law, and are pub- 
lished as such. The General Conference be- 
ing the legislative body of the Church, no 
questions of law are submitted save in cases 
of appeal of a traveling preacher, which goes 
to the Committee on Appeals, made up "of 
one delegate from each Annual Conference." 
This committee is " sole judge of the law and 
the facts." 

Another duty of the bishops is "to ordain 
bishops, elders, and deacons." Whether this 



Bishops and Their Duties. 



107 



duty inheres in the Episcopacy, and is only 
subject to regulation by the General Confer- 
ence, or whether it is merely a duty enjoined, 
and may be set aside by legislation, there may 
be difference of opinion. The former appears 
to be the view of Episcopal Methodism, as 
may be inferred from the law of the Church 
which requires the president of an Annual 
Conference elected "from among the travel- 
ing elders" in the absence of a bishop to " dis- 
charge all the duties of a bishop except ordi- 
nation." This view accords with the action 
of Mr. Wesley, who, in his capacity as father 
and founder of Methodism, regarding himself 
as a scriptural bishop, ordained Dr. Coke a 
bishop, and authorized him to proceed to 
America and ordain Francis Asbury to the 
same office. Mr. Wesley followed precedent 
set by Paul and Barnabas, who, by virtue of 
authority vested in them, " ordained elders" 
in Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch — in fact, u in 
every Church" they visited. 

But this view is not to be so strictly main- 
tained as to preclude ordination by any except 
bishops under all circumstances. Otherwise 
the Church might possibly be deprived of an 
ordained ministry altogether. The Church 
recognizes the law of expediency, and pro- 



108 A Short History of Methodism. 

vides that "if, by death, expulsion, or other- 
wise, there be no bishop remaining," the Gen- 
eral Conference shall elect one, and "the eld- 
ers, or any three of them who shall be ap- 
pointed by the General Conference for that 
purpose, shall ordain him according to our 
form of ordination." 

Presiding Elders. 

The presiding eldership is an essential fea- 
ture of Methodist economy — none the less 
essential because it is peculiar. In the ordi- 
nation of elders for America, Mr. Wesley 
probably never contemplated anything more 
than an order of men for the administration 
of the sacraments, and at the organization of 
the Church in 1784 only a number sufficient 
were ordained to this office to supply the de- 
mand. In the appointments of 1785 the names 
of several preachers "have the title elder af- 
fixed to them, and are prefixed to groups of 
circuits ranging from two to six in number, 
and including from one to nine preachers." 
This statement is from Dr. Tigert's "The 
Making of Methodism," where he further says: 
" Putting together the evidence derivable from 
the first and second annual Disciplines of the 
Church, from Thomas Ware and from Joshua 



Presiding Elders. 



109 



Soule, we are authorized to conclude that the 
presiding eldership, though not at first called 
by this name, is virtually coeval with the 
Church itself. . . . The first occurrence 
of the title ; presiding elder ' in the official ac- 
tion of the Church is in the plan for the Coun- 
cil adopted by the Annual Conferences in 1789, 
three years after the official term 6 district' 
had made its appearance in the Discipline of 
1786." 

Presiding elders are the representatives of 
the bishops — sub-bishops, to do the work of 
bishops in their absence. It is right and in 
accordance with the fitness of things that they 
should be chosen and appointed by the bishops. 
Indeed, it is necessary to the itinerant gen- 
eral superintendency of Methodism. Time and 
again the question of delegating the selection 
of presiding elders to the Annual Conference, 
making the office elective, has been agitated. 
The sentiment was so strong as to prevail in 
the General Conference of 1820, and would 
have become the law of the Church but for 
the decided stand of Bishop McKendree and 
Joshua Soule. The latter was elected to the 
Episcopacy at this Conference and the day 
appointed for his ordination. In the mean- 
time the Conference enacted the offensive leg- 



110 A Short History of Methodism. 



islation, whereupon Mr. Soule declined ordi- 
nation, stating, in substance, to the Confer- 
ence that the law making the presiding elder- 
ship elective was an infringement of the con- 
stitutional rights of the Episcopacy, and that 
as a bishop he could not be hampered in his 
administration by such legislation. Bishop 
McKendree joined with Soule in declaring the 
law a violation of the third Restrictive Rule. 
The Conference then by resolution suspended 
the operation of the law for the ensuing four 
years. The question, on the advice of Bish- 
op McKendree, was referred to the Annual 
Conferences, which sustained the position of 
Bishop McKendree and Joshua Soule, and the 
next General Conference repealed the objec- 
tionable law. Joshua Soule was again elected 
bishop, and was ordained. Since then the sen- 
timent in favor of an elective presiding elder- 
ship has not been strong enough to command 
a large following in either branch of Episco- 
pal Methodism. 

The presiding elder does the work that no 
other man can perform. Being the bishop's 
representative, he is at the same time the 
representative of the preachers and the peo- 
ple. He is the only man fully conversant 
with the affairs of the whole district over 



Presiding Elders. 



which he presides. He knows the preach- 
ers — their fitness for any given station. He 
also knows the people — their peculiar needs, 
their ability, and their willingness. He is 
therefore in a position to advise the bishop, 
and thus help him to a proper understanding 
and judicious arrangement and supply of the 
charges. When the duties of the presiding 
elder are fully considered and performed, his 
competency as adviser will be readily acknowl- 
edged. These duties are thus set forth in the 
Discipline of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 
South. They are practically the same in the 
Methodist Episcopal Church: 

To travel through his appointed district, in order 
to preach arid to oversee the spiritual and temporal 
affairs of the Church. 

In the absence of the bishop, to take charge of all 
the traveling and local preachers and exhorters in his 
district. 

To change, receive, and suspend preachers in his 
district, during the intervals of the Conferences, and 
in the absence of the bishop, as the Discipline directs. 

To be present, as far as practicable, at all the 
quarterly meetings, and to call together the members 
of the Quarterly Conference, over which he shall also 
preside. 

To decide all questions of law which may come 
up in the regular business of the Quarterly or Dis- 
trict Conference, when submitted to him in writing, 



112 A Short History of Methodism. 

subject to an appeal to the president of the next 
Annual Conference. 

To take care that every part of the Discipline be 
enforced in his district; to promote, by all proper 
means, the cause of Missions and Sunday schools, and 
the publication, at our own press, of tracts and Sun- 
day-school books; to inquire carefully, at each Quar- 
terly Conference, whether the rules respecting the 
instruction of children and the supplying of our 
books and periodicals have been faithfully observed; 
whether the preacher in charge administers the sac- 
raments, holds Church Conferences, enforces moral 
discipline, and attends to the collections assessed in 
his charge; and to report to the Annual Conference 
the names of all the delinquent traveling preachers 
within his district. 

To attend the bishops when present in his dis- 
trict, and to give them, when absent, all necessary 
information, by letter, of the state of his district. 

To direct the candidates for the ministry to those 
studies recommended for them by the bishops. 

To procure full statistics from every charge to be 
reported at the Annual Conference, . . . and to have 
the records of his District Conference at the Annual 
Conference for examination. 

If any preacher absent himself from his circuit 
[charge] , the presiding elder shall, as far as possible, 
fill his place with another preacher. 

Preachers in Charge. 
Originally, preachers in charge were called 
" assistants," because they assisted Mr. Wes- 
ley, who had direct control of all the work, 



Pastors — Local Preachers. 



113 



which at the time was not very extensive. 
The title is still retained in the Discipline, not- 
withstanding the preacher is almost universal- 
ly called " pastor," a term that fully express- 
es his relation to the Church. Preachers in 
charge are closer to the people and more inti- 
mately identified with their interests than any 
other class of officers. 

Preachers in charge compose the main body 
of the ministry, and on their energy and fidel- 
ity depend the success of the Church. The 
presiding elder is worth but little to any work 
if the preacher in charge is listless and indif- 
ferent, or if he is anywise disposed to be an 
obstructionist. A pastor out of harmony with 
his presiding elder or the great movements 
of the Church is a hindrance rather than a 
help to the people of his charge. Under con- 
ditions existing at present he has a larger 
share of work than formerly, and his respon- 
sibilities have been correspondingly increased. 
For information as to the duties of preachers 
in charge the reader is referred to the Disci- 
pline. 

Local Preacheks. 
The local ministry, like the presiding elder- 
ship, is peculiar to Methodism. This branch 
of the service is called local because those who 
8 



114 A Short History of Methodism. 

belong to it are not subject to appointment 
from year to year as those who give themselves 
to the itinerancy. They are really lay preach- 
ers. They were Mr. Wesley's first helpers, 
and exercised as preachers solely on his au- 
thority. When the itinerancy was inaugura- 
ted, all the lay preachers were not, or could 
not be, employed. Hence it came to pass that 
the two classes were distinguished, one as 
traveling and the other as local preachers. 
The distinction remains to this day. 

Every Methodist preacher begins his career 
in the local ranks. None are licensed as trav- 
eling preachers. While no man is obliged to 
enter the itinerancy, it is from the local ranks 
that the traveling ministry is recruited. To 
this end, a local preacher on his own applica- 
tion is recommended to the Annual Confer- 
ence for admission on trial, and retains the 
status of a local preacher until the end of 
his probation, two years, when, all conditions 
having been fulfilled, he is received into full 
connection. 

To faithful local preachers, Philip Embury 
in New York, and Robert Strawbridge in 
Maryland, America is indebted for the plant- 
ing of Methodism in her soil. The Church 
has never lacked men of this class, who, though 



Local Preachers. 



115 



not feeling called to travel at large, neverthe- 
less have "a dispensation of the gospel com- 
mitted unto them," and exercise their minis- 
try in a narrower sphere. Many local preach- 
ers are men of exalted piety and great ability. 

Consecrated men in this arm of the service 
have been of immense advantage to the Church, 
not only in assisting the pastors in their work, 
but in always being ready to take the place of 
pastors in an emergency or when the supply 
of traveling preachers is not equal to the de- 
mands of the work. They are often called on 
to serve as pastors, and many of them do ac- 
ceptable and efficient labor. 

Faithful local preachers are intrusted with 
the orders of the ministry. Having passed 
their novitiate, and stood an approved exam- 
ination on the course of study prescribed (a 
recent requirement), and receiving a recom- 
mendation to the Annual Conference, they 
may be ordained deacon; and following the 
same course, four years later may be ordained 
to the eldership. 

Local preachers in the Methodist Episcopal 
Church are amenable to the District Confer- 
ence; or if no District Conference is organized 
in the district with which they are connected, 
they are amenable to their respective Quarter- 



116 A /Short History of Methodism. 

ly Conferences. In the Methodist Episcopal 
Church, South, they are amenable to the 
Quarterly Conference. In both Churches they 
may appeal to the Annual Conference in case 
of conviction for crime. 



CHAPTER XIV. 



LAY OFFICERS OF THE CHURCH — STEWARDS. 

The office of steward in Methodism is so well 
known as to need but little space in these pages. 
Young readers, and some old ones, may be in- 
terested in learning something of its origin; 
for, though in the beginning it was of small 
import, it has come to be the most important 
and responsible office among the laymen of the 
Church. 64 The office," says Stevens, 44 arose, 
like most others in the economy of Methodism, 
from what would be called an accidental cause. 
The persons who persuaded Wesley to open the 
Foundry for worship proposed to contribute 
to his support; he declined their offer, for 
his college fellowship afforded him all the 
income he needed. They insisted on giving 
some financial aid to the new Church. 4 Then 
I asked, 5 he writes, 4 Who will take the trouble 
of receiving this money and paying it where 
it is needful ? 5 One said, 4 I will do it, and 
keep the account for you'; so here was the 
first steward. Afterwards I desired one or two 
more to help me as stewards, and in process of 
time a greater number. 7 " From that day to 

am 



118 A Short History of Methodism. 

this the office has been utilized by universal 
Methodism. 

An officer so important needed to be clear- 
ly described, and his duties defined. Hence it 
was required that a man fit for the place should 
be 44 full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, 55 that 
in all his work he might be acceptable to God. 
The qualifications for a steward are practically 
the same in all the leading branches of Metho- 
dism, and may be stated in the language of 
the Discipline: 4 4 Let the stewards be men of 
solid piety, who both know and love the Meth- 
odist doctrine and discipline, and of good 
natural and acquired abilities to transact the 
temporal business of the Church. 55 Regula- 
tions vary with various bodies, but the gen- 
eral duties are the same, that is, to look after 
the support of the ministry. In addition, as 
Bishop McTyeire in his 4 4 Manual of the Disci- 
pline 55 says: 4 4 As class leaders have, incidental- 
ly, a financial function, so stewards have a spir- 
itual one. It is their duty to inform the pas- 
tor of any who walk disorderly, and to tell the 
preachers what they think wrong in them. 55 

There is no uniformity among the differ- 
ent orders of Methodists as to the number of 
stewards allowed for each charge, some allow- 
ing more and others less. The law of the 



Stewards. 



119 



Methodist Episcopal Church is, "not less than 
three nor more than thirteen." In the South- 
ern Church it is " one steward for every thirty 
members" of a pastoral charge, " provided, . . . 
each Society in a circuit may have one stew- 
ard, and each circuit or station may have at 
least seven." 

From among the stewards — the " local 
board" — the Quarterly Conference appoints 
one a recording and one a district steward. 
The Discipline of each Church specifically de- 
fines the duties of each class of stewards. (See 
Discipline.) 

If the reader will carefully study those sec- 
tions of the Discipline which treat of stew- 
ards ; it will be seen that the strong language 
of Bishop McTyeire is fully justified: 

A careless or inefficient steward may, without 
positive opposition, starve out the ministry, in the 
midst of plenty and a willing people; for no other 
member feels at liberty to act in his place, without 
appointment. He stands between the pastor and his 
support. He is the commissary of the Church mili- 
tant, and by his non-action can contribute more to 
defeat than all the strategy of the enemy. On the 
contrary, where energetic and liberal stewards are 
employed, the Church partakes of their spirit, the 
congregation devises liberal things, poverty vies with 
wealth, and comparatively small and feeble Societies 
amply sustain the institutions of the Church, 



120 A Short History of Methodism. 

The Class Leader. 

Christians are largely dependent on the so- 
cial meetings of the Church for the mainte- 
nance and development of the spiritual life. 
The " communion of saints," as Mr. William 
Arthur has said, u is a vital part of New 
Testament Christianity." Mr. Wesley recog- 
nized this truth at the very beginning of his 
public career, and provided special appoint- 
ments for such communion, though it was not 
until 1742 that the office of class leader was 
introduced; and when introduced it was not 
for the purpose of using the leader as a sub- 
pastor, into which he soon developed. The 
leader as an adviser in spiritual matters was 
an afterthought, and providential. 

The origin of class meetings which neces- 
sitated class leaders, was on this wise: Mr. 
Wesley was in conversation with members of 
the Society at Bristol concerning the means 
of paying the chapel debts. One member 
proposed that every member "give a penny a 
week until all are paid." Another member 
answered, "But many of them arc poor, and 
cannot afford to do it." "Then," answered 
the first, "put eleven of the poorest with me, 
and, if they can give anything, well; I will 
call on them weekly, and if they can give 



The Class Leader. 



121 



nothing, 1 will give for them as well as for 
myself." The proposition was accepted, and 
the Society was divided into classes. 

This, it will be observed, was only an ar- 
rangement for managing the local finances. 
In the course of their rounds some of these 
leaders found members "who did not live as 
they should," and so informed Mr. Wesley. 
Immediately that sagacious man saw what he 
had been long wanting, leaders among the 
laity who could exercise a kind of spiritual 
oversight of the flock in the absence of the 
preacher. In this manner, says Stevens, 
"originated one of the most distinctive fea- 
tures" of Methodism. It may be truly said 
that class leaders and class meetings are pe- 
culiar to Methodism. 

What was accomplished at Bristol was soon 
effected at London, and in due course of time 
the class meeting was recognized as an insti- 
tution throughout the Societies. "It is the 
best school of experimental divinity the world 
has seen in modern times." Millions of souls 
living, and as many more in heaven, will bless 
God for the oversight of a faithful brother, 
who under all circumstances was concerned 
for the welfare of their souls. 

The pastor appoints the class leader. This 



122 A Short History of Methodism. 



is right, since he is the pastor's assistant. For 
information as to the duties in full of the class 
leader, see Discipline. 

Exhorters. 

Early in the history of Methodism, and up 
to a recent period, the exhorter was a popular 
and useful officer of the Church. The office is 
still recognized, and is filled by good men with 
great profit; but those called to the office are 
not so numerous as formerly. Occasionally a 
man is met who uses his gifts in this capacity 
with telling effect. The passing of the ex- 
horter is to be deplored, if for no other reason 
because many gifted and successful exhorters 
are spoiled by giving them authority to preach. 

The exhorter is not technically a preacher; 
he is not set apart for a preacher, though, like 
J ohn the Baptist, he preaches many things in 
his exhortations. His business is to enforce 
the commands of the gospel, and call sinners 
to repentance. To this line of public service 
he is restricted by the very title of his office. 
True, this is preaching, but it embraces only 
a part of a preacher's business. The latter is 
clothed with full authority, the former exer- 
cises in a narrower sphere. 

The authority to exhort has been often con- 



Exhorters. 



123 



f erred as a measure of caution—an antecham- 
ber, so to speak, in which men who professed 
to have a call to preach were tested. In this 
respect it has been useful, for it has demon- 
strated the unfitness of many for the office of 
the ministry — a fact that not a few are unwill- 
ing to acknowledge. 

Every leading Methodist body requires 
exhorters to be licensed. u As early as 1780 
it was a solemn Conference deliverance that 
4 no one presume to speak in public 5 without a 
written license from the pastor, subject to re- 
newal by him, after 6 examination with respect 
to life, qualification, and reception. 5 " In 1816 
the law was so changed in the Methodist Epis- 
copal Church as to require persons desiring 
license to exhort to obtain a recommendation 
from the class, or leaders' and stewards' meet- 
ing, and to have the license signed by the 
preacher in charge. It also subjected exhort- 
ers to annual examination of character by the 
Quarterly Conference, and renewal of license 
signed by the presiding elder or preacher in 
charge, if the Quarterly Conference approve. 
The law is the same to-day, save that they are 
subject to examination and approval by the 
District or Quarterly Conference. 

The Methodist Episcopal Church, South, 



124 A Short History of Methodism. 

gives the following directions concerning the 
licensing of persons to exhort: "The Quarter- 
ly Conference shall have authority to license 
proper persons to exhort, and to renew their 
licenses annually, when, in its judgment, their 
gifts, grace, and usefulness will warrant it. 
No person shall be licensed to exhort without 
the recommendation of the church of which 
he is a member, or of the leaders' meeting of 
the charge to which he belongs; nor shall any 
license be valid unless signed by the president 
of the Conference." Exhorters, by virtue of 
their office, are members of the Quarterly Con- 
ference. 

Trustees. 

With the erection of houses of worship, and 
the possession of other Church property, came 
the necessity for trustees. This in turn made 
regulations for the office necessary. Their 
duties in general are sufficiently indicated by 
the title of their office. They do not own 
Church property; they simply hold it in 
trust for the use of the Church, and have no 
control over it otherwise than the law directs. 
The Church determines to what uses its prop- 
erty shall be put. The trustees are required 
to see that it is "used, kept, maintained, and 



Trustees — Superintendents. 



125 



disposed of" for the purposes to which it has 
been dedicated. 

The regulations concerning trustees are well- 
nigh the same in the leading Methodist bod- 
ies, which regulations apply uniformly, except 
in states where the civil statutes conflict with * 
the laws of the Church. In such cases, the 
Church conforms to the law of the state. As 
a rule trustees are elected by the Quarterly 
Conference, and are responsible to that body, 
and are required to make a written report of 
their work once a year. Ill the case of district 
property, the District Conference appoints the 
trustees. 

Sunday-school Superintendents. 

Sunday-school superintendents are the best 
known lay officers of the Church. They are 
familiar, both in person and office, to all, 
from the oldest to the youngest member of 
the congregation. Their duties are so well 
understood that no word of explanation here 
is necessary. Suffice it to say, next to a faith- 
ful pastor, a faithful, godly, and zealous Sun- 
day-school superintendent has more to do in 
shaping the religious life, and in holding the 
children true to the Church, than any other 



128 A Short History of Methodism. 



officer. His position is one of no little respon- 
sibility. 

Unfortunately, the name of the first Sunday- 
school superintendent is not recorded. The 
honor is generally accorded to Robert Raikes, 
of England, who began a Sunday school in 
1781 at the suggestion of a young woman who 
afterwards married a Methodist preacher. But 
twelve years before that time (1769), Hannah 
Ball, a Methodist young woman, established^ 
Sunday school and instructed many children 
in the truths of the Bible. Stevens says, 
" Doubtless many similar attempts were made 
before that time." With no further light on 
the subject, and accepting Stevens's History 
as true, the honor of superintending the first 
Sunday school must go to Hannah Ball, of Wy- 
combe, England. 



CHAPTER XV. 



THE WOKK OF METHODISM — MISSIONS. 

Methodism from its incipiency has been 
dominated by the missionary spirit. Wesley 
was nothing if not a missionary. His convic- 
tions on the subject led him first to America 
"to convert the Indians." His work in that 
direction was a comparative failure, and he 
returned to England and began the work of 
spreading scriptural holiness, in which his suc- 
cess was little less than marvelous. The achieve- 
ments of his followers have challenged the ad- 
miration of the religious world. 

Mr. Wesley's missionary operations were 
conducted principally in countries belonging 
to the British crown. But much of his work 
was none the less foreign in its character. It 
was in his day as great an undertaking, and 
involved as much self-sacrifice, to go from 
England to America as it does in this day to 
go from America to China. Then, as now, 
men fired with missionary zeal were ready to 
go to the ends of the earth to carry the gos- 
pel. As an active promoter of missions, Dr. 
Thomas Coke stands almost, if not Quite, un- 

(127) 



128 A Short History of Methodism. 

rivaled in modern times. In the prosecution 
of his plans he crossed the Atlantic eighteen 
times, including several voyages to America 
as general superintendent of the Church. By 
way of eminence he was called the u foreign 
minister" of Methodism. He founded the ne- 
gro missions of the West Indies, which at the 
time of his death numbered seventeen thousand 
members. He " spent almost the whole of his 
patrimonial fortune," which was large, in 
visiting and sustaining his missions. "He 
preached for them and begged for them from 
door to door. . . . When a veteran of al- 
most seventy years, he presented himself be- 
fore the Wesleyan Conference as a missionary 
for the East Indies. The Conference objected 
on account of the expense, but Coke offered to 
pay the charges of the outfit Jiimself to the 
amount of $30,000, and so prevailed over all 
objections, and embarked with a small band 
of laborers. He died on the voyage in 1814, 
and was buried in the sea; but the undertak- 
ing succeeded, and the Wesleyan East India 
Missions are the result." ( McClintock and 
Strong.) 

The missionary spirit pervaded the Christ- 
mas Conference. Stevens in his History says 
there was a 44 call from Nova Scotia ? " in com- 



Missio7is. 



129 



pliance with which " Freeborn Garrettson and 
James O. Cromwell were ordained elders for 
that province. Jeremiah Lambert was or- 
dained to the same office for Antigua, in the 
West Indies. Work was begun in Canada a 
short time before it was extended to Nova 
Scotia, and a few years later into New Bruns- 
wick, Prince Edward Island, and Newfound- 
land. 

The Christmas Conference lasted ten days. 
"Coke preached every day at noon." Allud- 
ing to his work on the occasion, he says: "On 
one of the week days, at noon, I made a col- 
lection toward assisting our brethren who are 
going to Nova Scotia; and our friends gen- 
erously contributed fifty pounds currency — ■ 
thirty pounds sterling." The missionary spir- 
it then manifested has never died out among 
the Methodists. 

Notwithstanding the missionary zeal of the 
early preachers and the rapid extension of the 
Church, it was not until 1819 that anything like 
a formal organization for the promotion of 
mission work was effected. This was done in 
New York under a constitution drawn up by 
Dr. Nathan Bangs. Bishop McKendree was 
elected President; Bishops George and Roberts 
and Nathan Bangs, Vice Presidents; Thomas 
9 



130 A Short History of Methodism. 

Mason, Corresponding Secretary; and Josh- 
ua Soule, Treasurer. There were thirty-two 
managers. Drs. Mason and Soule served one 
year, when Dr. Bangs was elected Secretary 
and Treasurer, and served sixteen years. The 
General Conference of 1820 sanctioned the 
scheme, and the Missionary Society began a 
career of usefulness that has not retrograded 
through ail the years. 

The operations of the Society for twelve 
years were confined to the limits of North 
America, with special reference to the Indians. 
In this connection it is but just to say that the 
first American missionary was John Stewart, 
an African, who went from Marietta, Ohio, 
to the wild Indians in 1815 or 1816. He was 
remarkably successful. The first woman mis- 
sionary was the heroic Harriet Stubbs, of ex- 
cellent family and highly connected. The In- 
dians " looked upon her as an angel messenger 
sent from the spirit land to teach them the 
way to heaven." The success of the work 
among the Indians made organized effort in 
behalf of missions a necessity. 

In 1832 the Missionary Society proposed, with 
the consent of the General Conference, to estab- 
lish a mission in Africa. Melville B. Cox, a 
native of Maine, but at the time stationed in 



Missions. 



131 



Raleigh, North Carolina, a reserve delegate to 
the General Conference, volunteered his serv- 
ice and was accepted. He reached Liberia in 
March, 1833, and immediately began work. 
A few Methodists, transported to Africa by 
the Colonization Society, were found and or- 
ganized into a Church. Three missions were 
planned, also an academy. The consecrated 
missionary did not live long enough to see any 
of his plans mature. Fever seized him, and 
he died within five months. His dying cry 
w T as, u Let a thousand fall before Africa be 
given up ! " In 1835 Rev. Fountain E. Pitts, of 
the Tennessee Conference, w~as sent to South 
America on a missionary exploration tour. 
He was absent one year, and as a result of his 
report Rev. Justin Spaulding was sent to 
Brazil, but, in consequence of Romish intoler- 
ance, his mission was a failure. It was not un- 
til long years afterwards that Methodism 
got a foothold in that great empire. To-day 
the work flourishes. Methodist missions are 
world-wide. There are stations in Africa, 
South America, China, Japan, Korea, India, 
Germany, Switzerland, Denmark, Norway, 
Sweden, Bulgaria, Italy, and Mexico. These 
countries have been occupied for years. Very 
recently missionaries have been sent to Porto 



132 A Short History of Methodism. 

Rico and the Philippine Isles, countries here- 
tofore under the dominion of the Roman 
Catholic Church. Prior to the war with Spain 
(in 1898), feeble efforts were made to estab- 
lish missions in Cuba. Since the close of that 
struggle, vigorous efforts have been put forth, 
and mission work flourishes on that island. 

To the credit of the Methodists be it said, 
they never overlooked the spiritual interests 
of the colored people. Mr. Wesley paid atten- 
tion to them. His first convert among them 
was an African slave woman, belonging to a 
rich West India planter. This was the first 
African in the world converted to the Prot- 
estant religion. It occurred in 1758, and was 
the means of planting Methodism in the West 
Indies. At the time of Mr. Whitefield's first 
visit to Georgia slavery had not been intro- 
duced into the colony. It was introduced in 
1740. During subsequent visits to the colony, 
Whitefield frequently preached to the negroes 
in connection with the whites. The results 
were sometimes very happy. On his seventh 
and last visit, as learned from Smith's " His- 
tory of Methodism in Georgia," he "brought 
with him a young man, Cornelius Winter by 
name, who became the first missionary to the 
negroes." 



Missions. 



"At the Conference of 1787," three years 
only after the organization of the Church, 
u the first decisive step toward the evangeliza- 
tion of the slaves was taken." The preachers 
were required u to leave nothing undone" for 
their spiritual benefit and salvation. These 
injunctions were faithfully followed, and the 
result was gratifying. During the same year 
the Cumberland Street Church, in Charleston, 
South Carolina, "was finished with galleries 
for the negroes." This was the beginning of 
a custom throughout the South wherever there 
was a congregation of colored people. 

William Capers was the great apostle to the 
negroes, the father of missions to the slaves 
of the South. He came into the South Caro- 
lina Conference in 1808. His first work was 
the Wateree Circuit, a charge of twenty-four 
appointments to be filled in four weeks. To 
make one round required a ride of three hun- 
dred miles. There were four hundred and 
ninety-eight white and a hundred and twenty- 
four colored members. The young preacher 
paid as much attention to the latter as to the 
former, and doubtless acquired on this work 
that solicitude for the salvation of the blacks 
that characterized his after life, and whose ef- 
forts culminated in missions to the negroes 



13-1 A Short History of Methodism. 



throughout the whole of the Southern country. 
The author entered the ministry in 1859. 
His first circuit, like hundreds of others, em- 
braced the " colored mission." He preached 
to more negroes than white people. His sec- 
ond circuit was mostly in the hills, where ne- 
groes were f ew. Only at two or three points 
were there congregations of colored people. 
On his third charge there were perhaps five ne- 
groes to one white person. Often during spring 
and summer did he preach to four congrega- 
tions on Sunday, one white and three colored. 
This was in 1862, With the close of that 
year closed the work technically known in 
the South as u colored missions." War had 
deranged the work. To carry it on as of old 
wns impracticable, if not impossible. It was 
equally impracticable to resume it after the 
war closed. 

But who can measure the good results of the 
labors of Methodist preachers among the col- 
ored people of the South? Cold statistics 
give but a feeble idea of the work. They 
give no hint of the sacrifices, of the privations 
and reproaches endured, of the vast amount 
of toil necessary to the accomplishment of 
such results as the figures indicate. At the 
beginning of systematic efforts to save the 



Missions. 



135 



negroes there were in connection with the 
Societies three thousand eight hundred and 
ninety-three colored members. At the close 
of the year 1829 there were sixty-two thou- 
sand eight hundred and fourteen. At the 
close of 1860, when the war cloud arose, there 
were in the Southern Church alone two hun- 
dred and seven thousand slaves enrolled as 
members. To-day the colored members of 
the various Methodist bodies, not includ- 
ing the number in the Methodist Episcopal 
Church, number, lay and clerical, one million 
four hundred and nine thousand one hundred 
and sixty-four. 

The missionary operations of the Metho- 
dist Episcopal Church, for home and foreign 
work, are conducted by one General Board. 
In the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, 
the General Board has charge only of the for- 
eign work. The home work is under the di- 
rection of Annual Conference Boards, each 
Conference managing its own affairs. The 
women of both Churches have their separate 
organizations for home and foreign work. 
The colored Churches also have their mission- 
ary societies, with representatives in the for- 
eign field, and are doing good work. 

The income of the Missionary Society for 



136 A Short History of Methodism. 



the first year of its existence amounted to 
only $823.04. For the fiscal year of 1899 the 
income of the Societies of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church, including the Women's 
Societies, was $1,923,998. For the same year 
the income of all the Societies in the South- 
ern Church was $543,554.35 — or nearly two 
millions and a half of dollars in one year 
from only about half the Methodists of the 
world. In per capita contributions to missions 
the Wesleyans of England lead the Methodist 
hosts. 



CHAPTER XVI. 



WORK OF METHODISM — EDUCATION. f 

Methodism was born in a university. Its 
founder and those who cooperated with him 
in the beginning were not only men of literary 
attainments, but the friends and promoters of 
education. This is particularly true of Mr. 
Wesley, who was one of the foremost scholars 
of the day, and spared no pains to instill a love 
of learning into his preachers and people. He 
was handicapped in his efforts for lack of 
means. He was not rich, and his followers 
generally were poor. But he never lost sight 
of the subject. "It is an interesting fact," 
says Stevens in his History, "that in the year 
which is recognized as the epoch of Metho- 
dism, the date of its first field preaching, and 
among the miserable people where the latter 
began, it also begun the first of its literary 
institutions. And if anything could enhance 
the interest of this fact, it is that the founders 
of both Methodistic parties, Calvinistic and 
Arminian, shared in the founding of the first 
Methodist seminary. Whitefield laid the cor- 
ner stone of the Kingswood School; and kneel- 
ing upon the ground, surrounded by reclaimed 

(137) 



138 A Short History of Methodism. 

and weeping colliers, prayed that ' the gates of 
hell 5 might not prevail against it; while the 
prostrate multitude, now awakened to a new 
intellectual as well as moral life, responded 
with hearty amens. Wesley reared it by funds 
which he reserved from the income of his 
college fellowship or received from his fol- 
lowers. It was the germ of the later insti- 
tution which bears its name. 55 The Kingswood 
School still exists, and is one of the flourishing 
institutions of the Wesleyan Methodists. 

In 1744, the year in which the first Confer- 
ence was held, Mr. Wesley " proposed a theo- 
logical school, 'a seminary for laborers 5 or 
' lay preachers, 5 as it was characterized. 55 (Ste- 
vens.) This project, says the historian, "was 
at last realized by the present two 'theolog- 
ical institutions 5 of English Methodism. 55 

As early as 1780, four years in advance of 
the organization of the Church in America, 
John Dickins, the first book publisher of the 
American Methodists, suggested to Mr. As- 
bury "the plan of a Methodist academic insti- 
tution. 55 Mr. Asbury heartily approved the 
plan, though the Societies were hardly able to 
put it in operation. But the project was not 
abandoned, and at the first meeting of Dr. 
Coke with Mr. Asbury the latter submitted 



Education. 



139 



the matter to the bishop, who heartily ap- 
proved it. The Christmas Conference in- 
dorsed the movement, and by vote determined 
immediately upon the erection of a collegiate 
building. Money to the amount of nearly 
five thousand dollars was quickly raised, and 
Dr. Coke, as soon as convenient, contracted for 
the building material. The corner stone was 
laid by Mr. Asbury on Sunday, June 5, 1785. 
The school was called Cokesbury College, and 
was located at Abingdon, Maryland, about 
twenty-five miles from Baltimore. The school 
was opened in 1787. Many good people were 
attracted to Abingdon. The school was de- 
stroyed by fire in 1795; "but a second edifice 
was soon after provided in Baltimore," which 
6 c in one year shared the fate of its predeces- 
sor." This put an end to the Cokesbury Col- 
lege, but not to the efforts of the Methodists 
in behalf of Christian education. 

In 1789 or 1790 a college was projected for 
Georgia, and the u principal friends" agreed 
to endow it with " two thousand acres of good 
land." This college the Georgia Methodists 
agreed to call u Wesley College," in honor of 
Mr. Yfesley, if he should permit. About the 
same time a school was projected by Mr. As- 
bury in Kentucky, and three hundred pounds 



140 A Short History of Methodism. 



In land and money were given for its estab- 
lishment. The school was called Bethel. It 
did not succeed. The efforts of the Methodists 
were in advance of the demands and the abil- 
ity of the people, but they served to show 
that the Church was interested in the educa- 
tion of its children. 

But Methodism was destined to take rank 
with the foremost in the number, quality, and 
strength of its institutions of learning. In 
the United States the Methodist Episcopal 
Church takes the lead, having in 1898 — the 
latest figures at hand — two hundred and twen- 
ty-five schools of all grades at home and 
abroad; value, grounds and buildings, $16,- 
853,639; total amount of endowment, $14,- 
543,489; productive endowment, $9,908,325; 
professors and teachers, 3,097; students, 46,- 
408. The Methodist Episcopal Church, South, 
has, including eight or ten schools " under 
the patronage of the Church," 127 schools; 
913 teachers; 14,323 scholars; grounds and 
buildings valued at $4,046,550; total endow- 
ment, $2,409,080; productive endowment, $2,- 
150,080. The educational statistics of the sev- 
eral minor divisions of Methodism are not at 
hand. 



Sunday Sclwols. Ill 

Sunday Schools. 

The first Sunday school of Methodism, if 
not of the world, was organized at High Wy- 
combe, England, by Hannah Ball, an ardent 
young Methodist, in the year 1769. This 
was fourteen years before Robert Raikes be- 
gan his famous school at Gloucester, which 
school had its origin in the mind of anoth- 
er young Methodist woman, Sophia Cooke, 
who became the wife of Samuel Bradburn, 
a Methodist preacher. She first " suggest- 
ed to Raikes the Sunday-school idea, and 
actually marched with him at the head of his 
troop of ragged urchins the first Sunday they 
were taken to the parish church." (Tyer- 
man's Life of Wesley.) 

Raikes was the editor of the Gloucester 
Journal, but for two years he made no men- 
tion of his Sunday school. This perhaps was 
because he regarded his "plan" as an exper- 
iment. He referred to it in his paper on No- 
vember 3, 1783, and some time in 1781 he pub- 
lished an account of it. It immediately at- 
tracted the attention of Mr. Wesley, who re- 
printed the article in the Arminian Magazine; 
and " exhorted his people to adopt the new 
institution." They took his advice. The 
same year Mr. John Fletcher heard of the 



14:2 A /Short History of Methodism,. 

Sunday school, and, ever ready to adopt any 
measure that would help develop the spirit- 
ual nature of his flock, "set about the work. 95 
"He soon had three hundred children under 
instruction, and diligently trained them till 
his last illness." 

Mr. Wesley spoke of Sunday schools "pro- 
phetically." In his Journal for July 18, 
1784, he wrote: "I find these schools spring- 
ing up wherever I go; perhaps God may have 
a deeper end therein than men are aware of; 
who knows but some of these schools may 
be nurseries for Christians?" To-day Sun- 
day schools are almost universally regarded 
as essential, the principal nurseries of the 
Church. 

The first Sunday school in the United States 
was established by Bishop Asbury in 1786 
' 4 at the home of Thomas Crenshaw, in Han- 
over county, Virginia. ... In 1790 the first 
recognition of Sunday schools by an Ameri- 
ican Church was made by the vote of the 
Methodist Conferences, ordering their forma- 
tion throughout the Church, and also the com- 
pilation of a book for them," (Stevens's His- 
tory.) In 1827 the Sunday-school Union of 
the Methodist Episcopal Church was organ- 
ized. Like the original Missionary Society, 



Sunday Schools. 



143 



it was destined to become one of the stron- 
gest arms of the Church. It is to-day of co- 
lossal proportions, numerically, financially, and 
spiritually. The Methodist Episcopal Church, 
South, considering its ability and numbers, 
is not one whit behind its sister Church in 
prosecuting its work for the salvation of 
the children. Its business is conducted by a 
Board of fiye, elected by the General Confer- 
ence. The Sunday-school editor is chairman 
of the Board. 

In connection with the history of Sunday 
schools in the Methodist Episcopal Church, 
Dr. Abel Stevens gave the statistics for 1866 
as follows: Schools, 13,400; teachers and offi- 
cers, more than 150,000; and near 918,000 
scholars. The Yearbook gives the figures 
for 1898: Schools, 31,686; officers and teachers, 
350,388; scholars, 2,679,216. These figures 
do not include schools in foreign lands. The 
statistics for the Church, South, for the year 
ending April 30, 1900, are as follows: Schools, 
13,940; teachers and officers, 102,723; scholars, 
849,101. 

Both branches of the Church print and cir- 
culate an immense amount of literature, in- 
cluding libraries, periodicals, and lesson helps 
adapted to all ages and all grades. The Church 



144 A Short History of Methodism. 

South publishes nine Sunday-school periodi- 
cals (including picture cards sold only in sets) 
with a combined circulation of 1,131,800, The 
Yearbook of the Methodist Episcopal Church 
gives the names of its periodicals, eleven in 
number, but not the aggregate of circulation. 
Other branches of Methodism are successfully 
engaged in Sunday-school work, but no statis- 
tics of recent date are at hand. What the two 
leading branches are doing indicates the spirit 
that animates the whole body. 

Church Extension. 

Thousands of practically-minded Methodists 
recognized the building of houses of worship 
as necessary to the permanent occupation of 
any locality, town or country, long before any 
organized effort was made by the Church to 
give aid or stimulate local energy in that di- 
rection. Hundreds of Societies, organized at 
the close of revival meetings under bush arbors 
or in public schoolhouses or " Union church- 
es," after a few years of sickly existence passed 
away, or were absorbed by other denomina- 
tions, simply for lack of a dwelling place. 

Churches, like families, cannot live and 
thrive in hired houses or temporary shelters. 
It is not sufficient that a man and wife have a 



Church Extension, 145 

place to stay, to eat and sleep; their life pur- 
pose cannot be accomplished without a home. 
There must be some place around which to 
cluster their affections. They cannot love a 
boarding house, nor can home love be there de- 
veloped in their children. To them all board- 
ing houses look alike. Nor can love for the 
Church and its institutions be developed and 
maintained without a building, an altar all its 
own. Where love is lacking, there can be no 
loyalty. 

The Church was long finding out these facts, 
and longer still in making efforts to stop the 
leakage that was a more or less drain on her 
membership from year to year. Nov/ that 
Church Extension Societies exist, conducted 
with energy and ability, and on business prin- 
ciples, the evil is being cured. The desire to 
build a house is stimulated and put into execu- 
tion in almost every Society, however poor, by 
assurances that what is lacking on the part of 
the Society will be furnished by the Church 
Extension Board. And, what is better, obser- 
vation shows that the interest thus aroused is 
permanent, and results in enlarged liberality 
toward all the benevolences of the Church. 

The " Church Extension Society 55 of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church, now incorpo- 
10 



148 A Short History of Methodism. 



rated under the name of u The Board of Church 
Extension of the Methodist Episcopal Church," 
was ordered by the General Conference at 
Philadelphia in 1864. In January, 1865, the 
first Board of Managers was appointed, and 
the following June Dr. S. Y. Monroe was 
elected Secretary. He died in February, 1867, 
and was succeeded by Dr. A. J. Kynett, who 
filled the office continuously for nearly thirty- 
two years. 

According to the Methodist Yearbook for 
1900, the following is the work accomplished 
by the Society from its beginning to October 31 , 
1899 : 4 'Aggregate receipts on the General Fund, 
sustained chiefly by collections, and available 
for donations to churches, $4,201,205.97; on 
the Loan Fund, sustained chiefly by personal 
gifts, absolute, subject to life annuity, and be- 
quests, giving a capital of $1,086,856.54; loans 
returned, $1,270,367.73. Total Loan Fund, 
$2,357,224.27. Total amount used, $6,558,- 
430.24. Total number of churches aided by 
donations and loans, not including known du- 
plications, 11,301." 

The General Conference of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church, South, at its session in 1882, 
organized a Board of Church Extension ex- 
actly similar in character and purpose to the 



Church Extension. 



147 



Board of its sister Church. The office was lo- 
cated in Louisville, Ky., and continues there. 
Dr. David Morton was elected Secretary, and 
held the position until his death in March, 
1898. He was succeeded by Dr. P. H. Wilis- 
ner, of the Baltimore Conference, who, now 
(1900) holds the position. This Church, as 
does also the Methodist Episcopal Church, 
provides for an Auxiliary Church Extension 
Board in each Annual Conference, and for City 
Boards; the one in " cities having three or 
more pastoral charges," the other "in large 
cities." Both Churches require local Boards 
to sustain their work by special collections. 
No interference with the collections and oper- 
ations of the General and Conference Boards is 
allowed. In both Churches the regulations and 
methods of work are practically the same. 

The Church Extension work grows more 
and more in the confidence and affections of 
the people and preachers of the Church South. 
The first year of its history the collections 
amounted to $32,833.98. For the year 1899 
the collections amounted to $85,390.71. The 
collections and special donations since the or- 
ganization of the Board amount to $850,390, 71. 
In addition there has been given and bequeathed 
for the permanent loan fund $155,000, and 



148 A Short History of Methodism. 



legacies yet to be paid, $20,000; or a total of 
$1,025,390.71. These funds have been used 
to aid in the building of churches in all parts 
of the connection. The churches helped num- 
ber 3,900. The two Methodisms have assisted 
in building oyer 15,000 houses of worship. 
Other Methodist bodies are engaged in the 
same form of benevolence. 

The Epwohth League. 

The Epworth League is the latest organ- 
ized effort in the Church. It w r as intended 
primarily for the young people. For that 
reason, many prophesied that great good 
would result. For the same reason, others 
said it would fail. But, in the language 
of the Methodist Yearbook, "the days of 
mere prophecy are past. Its ranks, well 
drilled, and fired with holy enthusiasm, are 
marching steadily in the van of the great 
Christian army, as it so soon enters the twen- 
tieth century." 

The purpose for which the League is or- 
ganized is well stated in the Discipline of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church, South, namely: 
"For the promotion of piety, and loyalty to 
our Church among the young people; their 
education in the Bible and Christian literature, 



The Ejpworth League* 



149 



and in the missionary work of the Church ; 
and their encouragement in works of grace 
and charity." 

The history of the organization in the 
Methodist Episcopal Church may be briefly 
stated as follows: " Previous to 1889 various 
organizations for young people were formed 
in the Methodist Episcopal Church, and were 
recognized or indorsed by their respective 
Conferences. In May, 1889, the representa- 
tives of five of the largest of these societies met 
in Cleveland, Ohio, for conference and con- 
solidation, and on the 15th effected a union. 
... It was soon indorsed by the General Con- 
ference, and thus became the official young 
people's society of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church. Chapters now exist not only through- 
out the whole extent of the United States, 
but also in every land where the Methodist 
Episcopal Church has planted its mission 
stations. . . . The enrollment now (1900) 
reaches 19,800 Epworth and 6,900 Junior 
Leagues, with a total membership of 1,860,- 
000." (Methodist Yearbook.) That is a won- 
derful showing for eleven years of work. 

Up to the General Conference of 1900 the 
League work was under the management of 
a Board of Control, with a Secretary whose 



150 A /Short History of Methodism. 



business it was to travel at large and promote 
the cause. The Board of Control remains ? but 
the office of General Secretary has been abol- 
ished, and the duties of the office transferred 
to the editor of the Epworth Herald^ the or- 
gan of the League— a weekly paper, ably ed- 
ited by Dr. Joseph F. Berry, with a circulation 
larger than that of any young people's paper 
in the United States, excepting the Youth? s 
Companion. 

In regard to the League movement in the 
Southern Church, the Epworth League Hand- 
book, prepared by Dr. H. M. Du Bose, says: 

In the same year [1889, when the League in the 
Methodist Episcopal Church was organized] a num- 
ber of societies previously existing in the Methodist 
Episcopal Church, South, were organized into a co- 
operative union with a distinct constitution and 
plan of work. This movement had its beginning in 
Trinity Church, in the city of Los Angeles, Cal., in 
1889, when the pastor and the young people of his 
congregation reorganized their society, already sev- 
eral years in existence, into more effective shape, 
moved to do so by the great demands of the work of 
that Western pastorate. Their model was the early 
Methodist Society, and that they carefully sought to 
follow. This was the real and historical beginning 
of the Epworth League in our Church, the life-seed 
out of which it has sprung and grown. Many of 
those young Trinity Church workers had never been 



The Ejyworth League. 



151 



in any other young people's society than their own, 
but their organization anticipated the essential fea- 
tures of the Ep worth League as it exists in the South- 
ern Church to-day. It became the model of many 
other societies organized throughout the Union, 
chiefly in Call lomia an d the West. Other societies 
with similar designs existed elsewhere in the Church. 
In 1890 the Church Conference of Trinity Church sub- 
mitted to the General Conference a memorial and a 
plan of organization, together with a constitution, 
and prayed for their adoption for the whole Church. 
These documents are among the records of the Pub- 
lishing House atKashyille. On this memorial the Gen- 
eral Conference authorized the formation of Leagues., 
and they were at first placed under control of the 
Sunday-school Board. To Dr. W. G. E. Cunnyng- 
ham, then Sunday-school Secretary, is due the honor 
of setting this infant movement on its feet. 

In 1894 the General Conference took a forward 
step in Ep worth matters, and erected the League into 
a separate eonnectional department, elected an Ep- 
worth League Board of Control and a General Sec- 
retary and Editor, and ordered the publication of a 
weekly League paper. Rev. S. A. Steel, D.B., was 
elected Secretary and Editor. Dr. Steel served four 
years, and was succeeded by Dr. IL IvL Du Bose. 

The latest official figures show 4,787 char- 
tered Senior chapters, with a membership of 
215,415; and 560 chartered Junior chapters, 
with 19,600 members; making a total char- 
tered membership of 285,015. But careful es- 
timates indicate that there are 1,000 imchar- 



152 A Short History of Methodism,. 



tered Senior chapters, and a number of unre- 
ported Junior chapters, with an estimated 
membership of 50,000, which would run the 
grand total to 285,015, 



CHAPTER XVII. 



DIVISIONS OF METHODISM. 

There are about twenty-five organized bod- 
ies of people called Methodists; seventeen in 
the United States, and eight in Europe. There 
may be other bodies called by the same name; 
but if so, the gatherers of Church statistics 
fail to mention them. Many good people 
are of opinion that all Church divisions are 
wrong; that there are so many Methodist 
Churches they regard as hurtful to the cause 
of Christianity in general, and to Methodism 
in particular. It does not so appear to these 
Methodists; each body can give reasons for 
its separate existence, and while these reasons 
may not be satisfactory to the world, no one 
is justified in calling in question the piety and 
integrity of those who separate from the par- 
ent body and organize a Society in accordance 
with their convictions. 

Nearly, if not quite, every division of Metho- 
dism was the result of differences in the mat- 
ter of polity or practice, and not of doctrine. 
Of course the separation of Wesley and White- 
field in 1741, which resulted in the Calvinistic 
Methodists, is to be excepted. But this oc- 

. (153) 



154 A Short History of Methodism. 



curred before Methodism was fairly estab- 
lished. 1 This organization, after the death of 
Mr. Whitofield (in 1770), was divided into three 
separate sects. The first was known as Lady 
Huntingdon's Connection; the second was 
called the Tabernacle Connection, or White- 
iield Methodists; and the third of these sects 
is the Welsh Calvinistic Methodists. This last 
body flourishes mostly in the principality of 
Wales. Besides these, other minor divisions 
exist in Europe, of which no mention can here 
be made. Attention must be confined to the 
principal divisions. 

The Wesleyan Methodists. 
Wesleyans is a general name given to all 
the followers of John Wesley throughout the 
world. Preeminently and of right it belongs 
to the 4 4 main and original body of the Metho- 
dists in Great Britain,' 5 who call themselves 
Wesleyan Methodists. The origin of the body 
has been already given in these pages. In or- 
der to maintain oneness in doctrine and uni- 

1 The historian of the Wesleyans in McClintock 
and Strong's Cyclopaedia saj^s: 44 In 1742 Mr. Wesley 
and John Nelson itinerated through parts of York- 
shire and Cornwall, establishing Methodism in many 
places. During that year the organization of Metho- 
dism was nearly completed." 



The Wesleyan Methodists, 155 

formity in practice, and hold the property 
of the Methodists, Mr. Wesley drew up the 
Deed of Declaration (already noticed), and 
had it recorded in the proper court. In other 
words, the Society was incorporated, and the 
management placed in the hands of one hun- 
dred preachers, known as the Legal Hundred. 
The provisions of the Deed of Declaration re- 
main intact to the present day. It must not 
be understood, however, that the instrument, 
as binding in its provisions as it was, left no 
room for the adoption of new plans, or for the 
adaptation of Methodism to demands as they 
might arise. That would have been contrary 
to the policy of Mr. Wesley, who never hesita- 
ted to adopt any plan or use any means that 
would advance the cause of Christ. The Wes- 
leyans, pursuing the same policy, have in all 
respects kept pace with the age, and are to-day 
as aggressive as any body of Methodists in the 
world. 

The Legal Hundred is still the governing 
power, but the whole body of the itinerant 
ministry, together with laymen, meet in Con- 
ference, and exercise no little influence in 
shaping opinions and in determining the final 
action of the legal Conference. Had none 
but the Legal Hundred ever been allowed to 



156 A Short History of Methodism. 



influence legislation, the original Wesley an 
Church in all probability would long since 
have been wrecked. At one time it was very 
near the verge of ruin — the body losing about 
one hundred and twenty thousand members 
within two or three years; the troubles 
which occasioned the loss, and the organiza- 
tion of the Wesleyan Reformers, being attrib- 
uted to the arbitrary conduct of the leading 
preachers. The Wesleyans were twenty-five 
years regaining their lost ground. 

The Wesleyans are to-day the strongest and 
most aggressive body of Methodists in the old 
world. They give more money per capita to 
missions than any body of Methodists in the 
world, and they are fully abreast of other 
Churches in the matter of education, sacred 
and secular, and also in church building and 
mission work in London. The statistics for 
1899, including both home and foreign work, 
are as follows: Churches, 11,422; ministers, 
3,101; lay preachers, 25,282; members, 696,- 
117; Sunday schools, 9,517; officers and teach- 
ers, 143,659; Sunday-school scholars, 1,129,- 
584. 

The Methodist Episcopal Church. 
The planting of Methodism in America has 



The Methodist Episcopal Church. 157 

been set forth in these pages, as also the story 
of its organization into a separate and distinct 
Church. The development of the work has 
been detailed as thoroughly as limited space 
would allow. Nothing more in the way of 
history, so far as the Methodist Episcopal 
Church is concerned, need be added. A few 
facts as to the extent and strength of the 
Church at the present time must suffice. 

The Methodist Episcopal Church embraces 
in its fold slightly more than one-third of all 
the people called Methodists. It is the largest 
division of Methodism, and by far the stron- 
gest denomination of Protestants in the United 
States. Its preachers and members are found 
in well-nigh every civilized land, and in every 
heathen country that is open to missionary 
work. The Church to-day is as vigorous, as 
active, and as aggressive as at any period of 
its history. The fathers of the Church were 
never more determined to conquer this world 
for Christ than are the sons. The latest sta- 
tistics, found in the Methodist Yearbook for 
1900, are as follows: Annual Conferences, 148; 
traveling preachers, 17,583; local preachers, 
14,289; members, 2,871,949; Sunday schools, 
31,836; officers and teachers, 346,063; scholars, 
2,660,339: number of churches, 26,986, valued 



158 



A Short History of Methodism. 



at $116,275,007; number of parsonages, 10 r 
931, valued at $18,341,811. In addition, there 
are twenty-four bishops, including five mis- 
sionary bishops, who have the general over- 
sight of this great Church. 

The Methodist Episcopal Church, South. 

From the planting of Methodism in Amer- 
ica to the General Conference of 1844, a pe- 
riod of more than seventy-five years, there 
had never occurred anything like a division. 
There had been a few disturbances, resulting 
in the secession of a greater or less number of 
preachers and people, and the organization of 
feeble bodies bearing the name of Methodist. 
None of these secessions amounted to a disrup- 
tion, or for a moment checked the progress of 
the Church. But there existed constant agi- 
tation and friction over the subject of slavery, 
which threatened the harmony of the connec- 
tion. The agitation culminated in 1844. 

During the quadrennium beginning in 1840, 
Rev. Francis A. Harding, of the Baltimore 
Conference, married a lady who was the owner 
of slaves. The Conference demanded that he 
take steps to set the slaves free. This he 
failed to do, and the Conference suspended 



Methodist Episcopal Church, South. 159 

him from the ministry. He took an appeal to 
the ensuing General Conference (1844), which, 
after three days' consideration, confirmed the 
action of the Baltimore Conference. This was 
the first time in the history of the Church that 
the General Cenf erence had been called to act 
in its judicial capacity on a case involving 
slavery. The disposition of the appeal — the 
vote refusing to reverse the action of the Balti- 
more Conference standing 117 to 56 — indicated 
the sentiment and temper of the majority, and 
at once aroused fears of a storm, which in a 
few days broke in fury upon the Conference. 
It was foreseen that the decision, whatever it 
might be, would have its bearing on the case 
of Bishop Andrew, who, like Mr. Harding, 
had become connected with slavery by mar- 
riage. Excitement w 7 as intense. It was evi- 
dent to all that a crisis had come. 

Seeing it was necessary to allay strife or 
suffer the evils of disruption and alienation, 
Dr. William Capers, of South Carolina, one 
of the three General Secretaries of the Mis- 
sionary Society, also under censure of the 
New Hampshire Conference because he was 
u a slaveholder," proposed " that a committee 
of six be appointed to confer with the bishops, 
and report within two days, as to the possi- 



160 A Short History of Methodism. 

bility of adopting some plan, and what, for 
the permanent pacification of the Church." 
The proposition was accepted and the com- 
mittee appointed. This committee, instead of 
reporting " within two days, 5 ' did not report 
until after the expiration of four days; then 
Bishop Soule, instructed by the committee, 
reported inability u to agree upon any plan 
of compromise to reconcile the views of the 
Northern and Southern Conferences." 

Failing to effect a compromise, the Confer- 
ence made ready to meet the issue. The Com- 
mittee on Episcopacy were instructed to ascer- 
tain the facts in regard to Bishop Andrew's 
connection with slavery, and u report the re- 
sults of their investigations." Accordingly, 
Bishop Andrew, after an interview, submitted 
to the committee a written statement embrac- 
ing all the facts. This statement, at the ap- 
pointed time, was presented to the Conference 
by Dr. Eobert Paine, chairman, as the report 
of the committee. Bishop Andrew's state- 
ment showed that he was the legal owner of 
two slaves, but that neither one was his by his 
own consent. He could not manumit them 
because the laws of the state of Georgia would 
not allow it. One of these, he said, w x as free 
to leave whenever she felt disposed. The 



Methodist Episcopal Church, South. 161 

other, said the bishop, " shall be at liberty to 
leave the state whenever I shall be satisfied 
that he is prepared to provide for himself, or 
I can have sufficient security that he will be 
protected and provided for in the place to 
which he may go." As to the servants owned 
by his wife, he had 4 *no legal responsibility"; 
and as she could u not emancipate them if she 
desired," he was obliged to remain connected 
with slavery. 

The report of the committee was made to 
the Conference on May 22, and on motion was 
laid over until the next day. When reached 
in the order of business, the following resolu- 
tion was offered: 

Resolved, That the Rev. James O. Andrew be, and 
he is hereby affectionately, requested to resign his 
office as one of the bishops of the Methodist Episco- 
pal Church. 

After discussing this resolution the greater 
part of two days, it was substituted by an- 
other in the following language: 

Whereas the Discipline of our Church forbids the 
doing anything calculated to destroy our itinerant 
general superin tendency; and whereas Bishop An- 
drew has become connected with slavery by marriage 
and otherwise; and this act having drawn after it cir- 
cumstances which, in the estimation of the General 
11 



162 A /Short History of Methodism . 

Conference, will greatly embarrass the exercise of his 
office as an itinerant general superintendent, if not 
in some places entirely prevent it: therefore, 

Resolved, That it is the sense of this General Con- 
ference that he desist from the exercise of this office 
so long as this impediment remains. 

This resolution, after full discussion, was 
adopted by a vote of 111 to 69. The die was 
cast. The debate had clearly disclosed what 
would be the result of the adoption of the 
resolution. After its passage, as if alarmed 
at the predictions that had been made, and to 
avert calamity, resolutions were offered de- 
claring the action not mandatory, but advi- 
sory, "and postponing its final disposition, 
according to the suggestion of the bishops." 
These resolutions were laid on the table. 

The action of the majority was followed by 
a " Declaration 55 from the Southern delegates 
in which they took the ground that the pro- 
ceedings against Bishop Andrew were extra- 
judicial, in that they virtually suspended him 
from office without formal charge or trial, and 
that such proceedings would produce a state 
of things that would not further tolerate the 
jurisdiction of the Methodist Episcopal Church 
over the Conferences in the slaveholding 
states. This " Declaration " was followed by 



Methodist Episcopal Churchy South. 183 

the appointment of a committee of nine, with 
instructions, on motion of Dr. John B. Mc- 
Ferrin, "to devise, if possible, a constitution- 
al plan for a mutual and friendly division of 
the Church." This final step was to be taken 
only in the event of failure on the part of the 
committee to "devise a plan for an amicable 
adjustment of the difficulties existing in the 
Church on the subject of slavery." 

Previous to this appointment of the com- 
mittee of nine, resolutions were offered pro- 
posing two General Conferences, but they 
failed. The committee also failed to find a 
way for the amicable adjustment of difficul- 
ties, and reported a Plan of Separation, which, 
on motion of Dr. Elliott, of Cincinnati, was 
adopted. The vote in favor of the Plan was 
nearly unanimous. It was advocated and 
voted for by the strongest men of the North. 
The Conference adjourned, not without feel- 
ings of sadness, but in peace, believing that 
the troubles in the Church had ended. * 

As the Plan of Separation provided not v only 
for the division of the membership and relin- 
quishment of the jurisdiction of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church over the Southern Confer- 
ences except such as might elect to remain in 
the Methodist Episcopal Church, but also for 



164 A /Short History of Methodism. 

an equitable division of the property in the 
Book Concerns of New York and Cincinnati, 
and the Chartered Fund (a fund for the relief 
of preachers, their wives, widows, and chil- 
dren), it became necessary for the South to 
effect organization. The Southern delegates 
very properly took the initiative. They called 
for a Convention of the Annual Conferences to 
meet in Louisville, Ky., May 1, 1845. The 
Convention met at the appointed time, and, 
" acting under the Plan of Separation, declared 
the Southern Conferences there represented 
a distinct connection, under the style of 6 The 
Methodist Episcopal Church, South." 5 (Mc- 
Clintock and Strong's Cyclopaedia.) Sixteen 
Annual Conferences were represented, with a 
membership, white and colored, numbering 
nearly five hundred thousand. 

Bishops Soule and Andrew were recognized 
as regular and constitutional superintendents, 
and as such were invited to become bishops 
of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. 
Bishop Andrew complied with the request im - 
mediately. Bishop Soule's sympathies were 
with the movement, but he did not give In 
his formal adherence until the meeting of the 
General Conference in Petersburg, Va., May, 
1846, which Conference had been provided for 



Methodist Episcopal Church, South. 165 

by the Convention. A letter announcing his 
purpose was read to the General Conference 
on the second day of the session. 

The Methodist Episcopal Church, South, 
now fully organized, had entered upon a ca- 
reer of unprecedented prosperity. But trouble 
was ahead. The Plan of Separation was not 
fully indorsed in the North, and the ensuing 
General Conference of the Methodist Epis- 
copal Church, which met in 1848, declared 
it " unconstitutional" and 44 null and void." 
The commissioners, three from each divi- 
sion of the Church, appointed to carry out 
the wishes of the General Conference of 1844, 
could do nothing. This made an appeal to 
the civil courts necessary. Suit was instituted 
in the United States Circuit Courts of New 
York and Ohio. In the New York court de- 
cision was in favor of the South, and in the 
Ohio court against. In the latter case appeal 
was taken to the United States Supreme Court, 
where, in 1854, the judgment of the Ohio court 
was unanimously reversed, and the Plan of 
Separation ordered enforced in all its provi- 
sions and particulars. The judgment of the 
court was duly executed. Thus closed the 
saddest chapter in the history of American 
Methodism. 



166 A Short History of Methodism. 



At the completion of the organization of the 
Southern Methodist Church in 1846, there 
were traveling preachers, 1,519; local preach- 
ers, 2,833; white members, 327,284; colored 
members, 124,961; Indian members, 2,972; a 
total of 459,569. In 1860 these figures were 
swelled to 757,209. In 1866, as a result of the 
Civil W ar, the numbers were reduced to 418,- 
164; a loss of 276,145. 

The statistics for 1899 are as follows: Trav- 
eling preachers, 6,120; local preachers, 5,329; 
members, 1,464,80s; 1 Sunday schools, 13,- 
940!; Sunday-school teachers, 102,723; Sun- 
day-school scholars, 849,101; houses of wor- 
ship, 305-J-; parsonages, 3,692; value of churches 
and parsonages, $26,042,335. 

This history is closed with the closing sen- 
tences of Bishop Hendrix's fraternal address, 
delivered before the British W esleyan Confer- 
ence, July 30, 1900: 



1 These figures do not include colored members. At 
the close of the war many thousands of the colored 
members of the Southern Church went into the 
Methodist Episcopal Church. Those remaining were 
set off to themselves with all their property in the 
Colored Methodist Episcopal Church, which now has 
more than two thousand preachers and more than 
two hundred thousand members. 



Methodist Episcopal Church, South. 167 

There was anolher "man sent from God whose 
name was John, ' ' John Wesley, through whose work 
in England and her colonies there are more Metho- 
dists and adherents in the world to-day than there 
were English-speaking people when Wesley began his 
appointed work after that memorable 24th of May, as 
Paul and Luther spoke to him through the great Epis- 
tle to the Romans of the gospel that saves unto the 
utmost. 'What apostolic hands were these laid upon 
Wesley's head, whose sons are heard preaching the 
gospel in more tongues to- day than were spoken in 
the Roman empire in the day of its widest extent, 
while American Methodists alone, at the end of a cen- 
tury and a half, outnumber the entire census of Chris- 
tianity at the end of the first three centuries ! 

At the time Methodism began her work in Ameri- 
ca, the Congregationalist, the Episcopal, and the 
Dutch Reformed Churches had each been at work in 
our land for more than a hundred years. The Bap- 
tists, Presbyterians, and Lutherans had been with us 
also from before the birth of Wesley. Despite that 
three of these were the established Churches of their 
several localities, our great land still waited for Metho- 
dism. Starting in last of all and more than a century 
behind several of the great Protestant Churches, 
Methodism to-day outnumbers any other Protestant 
Church in America by a million and a half of com- 
municants. 



JUL 27 1901 



